The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State has accused the Governor of the State, Nyesom Wike and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of the conspiracy to disrupt Port Harcourt Constituency 3 bye-election.
The State Chairman of APC, Mr Ojukaye Flag-Amachree, accused the governor of offering him bribe of N200 million to compromise the election, while over time had placed many INEC officials in Port Harcourt on his payroll.
Flag-Amachree, made this known in a press briefing in Port Harcourt on Monday.
Chief Dickens Worlu, the APC candidate for the bye-election, was comfortably leading in most polling units before Gov. Wike mobilised his Chief Security Officer, Mr Promise Nwosu with armed men to invade the units.
He further accused the government of attempting to favour the PDP candidate unduly in the election by deploying armed security operative attached to the state government house, to election polling units to disrupt the elections.
“In the process, several shots were fired to intimidate both voters and election officials but most of the voters in the constituency stood their ground and resisted the state of shootings and intimidation.
“Having failed to substantially cow the voters especially APC members, Wike reached me and pleaded to have my cooperation and in return get N200m bribe, which I declined and reported same to the APC leadership.
“In failed mission to bribe me and intimidate voters, Gov. Wike and his CSO became more determined to scuttle the bye-election, decide to undertake smear campaign against me as demonstrated in his broadcast,” he alleged.
According to Flag-Amachree, Gov. Wike has all the Electoral Officers (EOs) of theIndependent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Rivers on his payroll with the purpose of compromising the 2019 election in advance.
“Wike has been paying a monthly sum between N1m to N3m to various officers depending on rank, and he has penciled down key security agents to compromise elections in the state.
“We are not also surprised that INEC and Gov. Wike are working hand-in-gloves to rig elections in Rivers,” he claimed.
The chairman said the APC believes that the recruitment and posting of a confessed PDP apologist and virulent critic of President Muhammadu Buhari’sgovernment, Mr Obo Effanga is beyond not coincidental.
“The highly convoluted memo suspending the bye-election further attests to the fact of a well-entrenched bias on the part of the INEC REC.
“The following link https://punchng.com/change-government-one-year/, is an op-ed in the Punch Newspaper of May 30, 2016 titled: “The ‘Change’ government one year after by Mr Obo Effanga before he was mysteriously employed and posted to Rivers,” he said.
