Two major parties contesting the governorship and House of Assembly elections in Rivers state on Saturday, APC and PDP have been trading accusations over alleged plot to rig the elections. In two separate statements today, the parties called on security agencies to be on the alert.
In its own release, APC said “With defeat staring him in the face, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate for the April 11 governorship polls in Rivers State, Chief Nyesome Wike, has made overtures to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), seeking to negotiate his future after the expected victory of the APC candidate, Dr. Dakuku Peterside. Rivers APC Chairman, Dr. Davies Ibiamu Ikanya, revealed in Port Harcourt on Thursday that Chief Wike had reached out to him through his running mate, Dr. (Mrs.) Ipalibo Banigo, making the following requests:
That APC should not go to the Election Tribunal over the National Assembly election of 28th March awarded to PDP candidates.
That Governor Chibuike Amaechi should prevail on the President-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari, not to probe his activities as junior Minister of Education and that Dr. Peterside, upon assumption of office as governor, should not probe his office when he served as the Chief of Staff to Governor Amaechi.
That he be allowed to nominate three members of his Grassroot Democratic Initiative (GDI) as Commissioners in the cabinet of Dr. Peterside.
To show the seriousness of Chief Nyesome Wike on this, he has asked the people of Rivers State to vote out all PDP candidates in the April 11 polls. The attached audio tape says it all.
Dr. Ikanya said in a statement that he was non-committal after being contacted by Dr. Banigo but rather advised that Chief Wike should bring up these issues after the election of April 11th as it is already too late to go into negotiation with regard to the polls.
Ikanya in the statement maintained that all the stolen National Assembly seats by PDP would be retrieved through the Election Tribunal as APC cannot allow illegal occupants to represent Rivers State in the National Assembly.
The Rivers APC Chairman advised the electorate to troop out on Saturday and vote for Dakuku Peterside. He said that apart from saving Rivers State from PDP-induced violence, occultism and worship of the devil, an APC victory in the governorship election would mean aligning the Rivers State Government and the entire State with the incoming APC-led Federal Government and to attract the following benefits to the State:
- Urgent re-modeling and completion of the Port Harcourt International Airport Omagwa.
- Reimbursement of over N100 Billion owed Rivers State by the Federal Government.
- Further investments into and commencement of Train 7 of the NLNG project Bonny to create more employment opportunities for Rivers State indigenes.
- Construction of the Bodo-Bomu-Bonny Road, completion of the East-West Road and the rehabilitation of Rivers State section of the Port Harcourt-Aba Road.
- Return of the Soku oil wells and other oil wells to Rivers State.
- Dr. Ikanya commended and congratulated former Governor of Rivers State, Chief Rufus Ada George, for advising people of the State to vote APC in order to align the State with the incoming APC Federal Government for the rapid development of the State.
“We pray and hope that the good people of Rivers State will adhere to this wise counsel and ensure that we don’t have a government in Rivers State that will antagonist against the APC Government at the centre. With PDP members joining APC in droves in order to salvage our nation, it is unthinkable that any right-thinking Rivers person should be contemplating wasting his vote on the doomed PDP and its candidates in the April 11 elections,” Ikanya stated.
“For some strategic reasons, the rally slated to hold on 10th April, 2015 to accept the 10,000 PDP defectors will no longer hold. This is to avoid running fowl of the electoral laws that says that campaigns or rallies should not hold 24hours to the date of an election. The event will now take place after the election of April 11th at a date that will be used to celebrate the APC’s victory as expected”, the statement added.
On its part, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Rivers State said it “has constantly drawn the attention of the public to the desperation of Rivers State Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi and the All Progressives Congress (APC) to rig the April 11, 2015Governorship and House of Assembly elections in the State. The APC has been using Rivers State resources to defeat the will of the people of the State. They have been hiring and arming hardened criminals and mercenaries to be used against the will of Rivers people during the elections. They have also been buying guns and ammunition for misguided youths in the State to cause aggravated havoc in different parts of the State so that elections will not hold in Rivers State until Gen Mohammadu Buhari is sworn in as President on May 29, 2015. With an APC President on seat, Amaechi and APC hope to have all the powers to rig elections with brazenness.”
According to a statement read by Emma Okah, spokesman of the Wike campaign organisation, “The second leg of the rigging strategy by Amaechi and the APC is the reason for this Press Conference. To Amaechi and the APC, INEC must be compromised at all cost. Amaechi and the APC have been offering bribes to INEC officials at various levels with a view to compromising them in the conduct of the elections in Rivers State. We will leave the details of other cases for another day but the events of last night is most embarrassing.
“Yesterday, Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi met with ten (10) Electoral Officers (EOs) who are in charge of conducting elections in ten local Government Areas in the State. In the meeting, they agreed that the sum of N20M (Twenty Million Naira) will be paid to each of the ten EOs by Amaechi and APC so that they will exchange the authentic result sheets with the ones prepared by Amaechi and APC. Thereafter, the EOs will on Saturday declare the results contained in the fake result sheets prepared by Amaechi and APC.
“Some of the Local Government EOs affected are: Ogu/Bolo LGA, Tai LGA, Degema LGA, Ahoada East LGA, and Ahoada West LGA
“Sadly, this is in addition to several threats to cause violence and wreck havoc on the people of the State either before or during the elections. They have been hiring and arming criminals and militants from within and outside the State with a view to hijacking sensitive election materials and or creating a situation of complete chaos and anarchy to force the INEC to announce a shift in the elections. To them, holding elections in the future after Gen Mohammadu Buhari would have been sworn in as President will give Amaechi and APC the opportunity to hide under the Federal might to rig and manipulate elections.
“In addition to this, Amaechi and APC have been boasting that they have compromised the new INEC Commissioners who are coming to Rivers State to assist the State REC conduct the April 11, 2015 elections in the State. To all intents and purposes, this is a criminal action and a breach of our electoral laws. We have brought this to the attention of the public so that they will be the judge. Above all, we urge the Police, INEC and law enforcement Agencies to initiate appropriate investigations into these matters and bring the culprits to book.”
