Despite the alleged killings and wide-spread rigging in the parliamentary re-run elections in Rivers State, the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, and the All Progressives Congress, APC, have produced winners.

48 hours after the election, The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC,  declared the PDP candidate, Osinachukwu Ideozu, winner of the of the Rivers West senatorial district.

Ideozu was announced winner on Tuesday afternoon with 107,166 votes as he defeated Otelemaba Amachree of the APC, who got 48,898 votes.

Also, the PDP candidate in the Rivers East senatorial district election, George Sekibo was declared winner by INEC on Monday afternoon.

Sekibo defeated Andrew Uchendu of the All Progressives Congress, APC. He polled 93,098 votes to defeat . Uchendu who had 34,193 votes.

Earlier on Sunday, INEC declared the candidate of the APC,  Magnus Abe, duly elected to represent the Rivers South East District at the Senate.

INEC’s returning officer, Gideon Onukwuisi, while announcing results at the collation centre in Bori, explained that, of the 154, 703 cast votes, 152,706 were valid, while 2,627 were rejected. Abe was said to have polled 125, 938 votes to defeat his PDP rival, Olaka Nwogu, who polled 25,394.

In the other results announced on Sunday, the APC candidate for Khana 2 Constituency,  Friday Nkeeh, was declared winner of the House of Assembly election having scored 15,000 votes to beat his PDP rival, Dinebari Loolo, who scored 4,000. Similarly, Innocent Barikor, APC, was declared winner of the Gokana State Constituency having polled 24,624 votes.

APC candidates, Barry Mpigi and Maurice Pronen, were declared winners of Tai/Oyigbo/Eleme and Gokana/ Khana Federal constituencies respectively. Mpigi scored 48,760 votes while Pronen had 68,219 votes.

However, PDP candidate for Bonny State Constituency, Abiye Pepple, scored 6,610 to defeat APC’s, Henry Halliday, who scored 2330.

Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike had on Sunday called on INEC to declare the outcome of Rivers East Senatorial District and Rivers West Senatorial District, which he believed PDP candidates clearly won based on results from polling units.

Wike also called on INEC to immediately release the results of Andoni /Opobo-Nkoro Federal Constituency and Andoni State Constituency which he said were also won by the PDP.

According to him, the outcome of Rivers East has been held down by a plot of INEC, the Army and the Police to manipulate the results of Emohua and Ikwerre Local Council Areas in favour of the APC.

Before the result of Rivers East Senatorial seat was declared, Premium Times reports that there was confrontation between PDP members led by Governor Nyesom Wike and security operatives before the final result was declared at the Port Harcourt City Council Hall.

Wike mobilised his party members to the venue of the collation centre to demand declaration of the result. The people defied security operatives who were shooting sporadically.

Meanwhile the Nigerian military confirmed the death of two policemen during the election but denied involvement in any electoral malpractice as alleged by the PDP and the state government.

Also confirming the death of the two policemen, the Inspector-General of Police Ibrahim Idris, expressed his sadness at the loss of the officers, ordering an investigation into the circumstances of the killings while ordering that the killers must be fished out and brought to justice.

The army said it recovered the body of DSP Alkali Mohammed of Mobile Police Unit 48 who was beheaded along with his orderly.

The General Officer Commanding (GOC) 6 Division Nigerian Army,  Kasim Abdulkareem, a Major General in a press statement in Port Harcourt on Sunday also denied that the army was involved in illegal activities during the elections.

A Federal High Court in Abuja had in December 2015 ordered reruns for 22 State House of Assembly, 12 House of Representatives and three senatorial seats.

INEC’s attempts to conduct the polls on March 19, 2016 were disrupted by widespread violence that forced the commission to suspend elections in some areas.

Effort by INEC  to conclude the controversial elections by July 30 was again foiled as INEC was forced to suspend the rerun indefinitely due to what it said was an arson attack on its office in Bori, Khana Local Government Area.

The commission eventually fixed the re-run for December 10 after the Senate gave an ultimatum to that effect.