Rivers State has been enveloped in anxiety, following the allegation by a group, Ken Saro-Wiwa Associate, that Governor Nyesom Wike and other ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leaders had concluded arrangements to bomb the offices of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the four Ogoni Local Government Areas of Khana, Gokana, Tai and Eleme. Thus, fears are rife that the December 10 legislative rerun may be marred by violence.
The group’s national coordinator, Gani Topba, alleged a plot to cause confusion that would again lead to the postponement of the elections.
Wike, through one of his allies, Sidney Tambari Gbara, who is the Chairman of PDP in Khana LGA, has denied the allegation .
The INEC has fixed July 30 for the poll, but it was postponed till October because the electoral commission’s office in Bori-Ogoni was set ablaze by unknown persons on July 22.
The APC candidate in the Rivers Southeast Senatorial District, Senator Magnus Abe, is seen by most stakeholders as Wike’s main headache because of the 2019 governorship battle. Abe is a potential governorship aspirant.
The governor is making efforts to ensure that the Bera-Ogoni, Gokana LGA-born Abe, who was the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Petroleum (Downstream) in the 7th National Assembly, does not return to the Senate.
The campaign office of Abe in Bori was recently bombed by unknown persons.
Wike, however, claimed that Abe and other APC leaders would not pose threat to the PDP candidates: “We defeated them before and we will defeat them again, he said.”
An APC chieftain, Hon. Ojukaye Flag-Amachree, alleged that the PDP was planning to arrest opposition figures.
Flag-Amachree, a former Chairman of Asari-Toru (Kalabari) council, was arrested on April 19 over allegation of murder in his LGA during last year’s general elections.
He said: “While I was still in detention, they made all efforts to make sure that I defected to the PDP and assured me that they would withdraw all the charges against me and at the same time make some offers. I told some of them, but I cannot start calling their names, that the essence of my whole political life, is not just because of what I will gain or any personal benefit, but based on principle.”
Wike has accused the Commissioner of Police, Francis Odesanya, of allegedly approving 10 riot policemen for Flag-Amachree, who he said was standing trial for murder.
The Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Aniedi Ikoiwak, who assured that the rerun would be free, fair and credible, disclosed that the elections would hold in 1,840 polling units across the 23 LGAs.
Ikoiwak said the bulk of the voting on December 10 would be in seven LGAs of Andoni, Akuku-Toru, Bonny, Etche, Ikwerre, Khana and Gokana, while giving assurance that INEC would not take sides.
The REC said that the electoral commission was not recruiting ad hoc staff for the rerun, stressing that the ad hoc staff used during elections were recruited from the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) and other federal agencies.
The PDP has the 25 of 32 seats so far declared in the Rivers House of Assembly. The only elected APC lawmaker, Victoria Nyeche, of Port Harcourt Constituency 1, is yet to be inaugurated, in spite of a court order, based on Wike’s directive to the leadership of the House of Assembly.
The PDP is also occupying the three declared seats of the House of Representatives, out of 13. Rivers currently has no senator in the National Assembly. The senatorial elections will hold in Rivers Southeast, Rivers East and Rivers West districts.
The 23 LG caretaker chairmen and members belong to the PDP and they would want to deliver their areas by hook or crook, but the leadership of the APC vowed that rigging would be resisted on December 10.
The governor of Kano State, Alhaji Abdullahi Ganduje, who chairs the Rivers APC Campaign Council, during its November 30, inauguration in Abuja by the National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, assured that the candidates of the APC would emerge victorious on Saturday.
The governor and the APC also disagreed on campaign schedules.
Wike claimed that members of Rivers APC had refused to campaign, in view of the assurances from INEC and the security agencies that the elections would be manipulated in their favour.
The governor stated that the plot to rig the polls would come to naught, because the people were vigilant and would not be intimidated by the illegal use of security agents to aid INEC to rig.
Wike said: “They (APC members in Rivers State) have refused to campaign because they have received assurances of rigging.
“The man who plans to hijack materials, how many heads does he have? Rivers people must stand up to defend their votes.”
APC Publicity Secretary Chris Finebone however, maintained that the candidates of the party were busy campaigning across the three senatorial districts.
“As the rerun approach, it seems to be dawning on the governor that times have changed.
“Today, some of the Supreme Court justices that Wike compromised to get favourable judgment are standing trial, while others are under intense investigation by security agents.
“The result of the present situation is that the cowardly Wike is feeling totally vulnerable and jittery. In his helplessness, the governor has resorted to crude blackmail against all stakeholders.”
Wike, claimed that the 600 policemen in the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) have already been assigned to prominent APC leaders by Odesanya, on local government basis, allegedly for the indiscriminate arrest of PDP supporters, few days to the elections.
Odesanya, accused the governor of mere propaganda and deception, saying that he never met with any APC leader on how to rig the rerun.
The APC Chairman, Chief Davies Ikanya, also alerted that the state governor and other members of the PDP were planning to deploy fake soldiers and policemen during the rerun.
He alleged that Wike had made many NYSC uniforms, complete with APC tags, which PDP thugs would wear and thumbprint ballot papers on the day of the elections, to implicate the APC.
The governor, however, alleged that the police high command, through the state’s Commander of SARS, Mr. Akin Fakorede, has distributed SARS personnel to APC candidates and chieftains for the rerun.
He claimed that the SARS personnel were assigned to the APC’s candidates and chieftains for the purpose of snatching election materials and the intimidation of PDP supporters.
Wike wondered why politicians, who were expected to stay away from polling units, would be allocated SARS personnel to cause electoral violence.
Giving a breakdown of some of the APC leaders allocated the SARS personnel, the governor claimed that Rivers East candidate, Chief Andrew Uchendu, was allocated 27 men; Ojukaye Flag-Amachree – 10 men; APC’s candidate for Okrika/Ogu-Bolo federal constituency, Maureen Tamuno – 10 men, while Azubuike Wanjoku, Ogbonna Nwuke and Barry Mpigi, all APC’s candidates, were allocated 10 policemen each.
He alleged that the Rivers police command, after allocating policemen to APC candidates, left all PDP candidates for the same polls without security, stressing that the resolution to use security personnel for rigging the rerun would not succeed in the state, noting that the youths would stand to defend their votes.
Wike said: “Despite these fraudulent allocation of security personnel to APC candidates, I urge our people to remain vigilant and not to be afraid.
”Our youths should follow the electoral process from the beginning to the end. Defend your votes and the mandates of the people of Rivers State.”
The governor also said he decided to take it upon himself to release critical information garnered through confirmed intelligence, for the sake of credible and violence-free polls.
The APC, however, expressed surprise about the decision of Wike to take special interest in scrutinising precautionary personal security arrangements by candidates of the APC, ahead of the rerun.
The party stated that it was shocking that the Rivers governor went to town, reeling out names of alleged security agents protecting APC candidates, claiming that the security agents would be used to cause electoral mischief, particularly for snatching of ballot boxes, which was described as ridiculous, untrue and worrisome.
APC said: “The Rivers governor should not be bothered about security arrangements people make for themselves, in the face of general insecurity that presently pervades our once peaceful state, now under his watch.
“It is all too well known that he (Wike) lacks the moral ground to genuinely fight insecurity, having caused it ab initio. It is highly suspicious that a governor will climb a political soapbox and start reeling out names of security agents attached to his political opponents.”
The party also condemned Wike’s continued blackmail of stakeholders, except himself and PDP, stressing that immunity in public office had expiry date.
APC also revealed why the governor was fighting President Muhammadu Buhari; Amaechi; and other leaders of the APC.
It alleged that Wike was plotting to undermine Buhari’s administration, thereby weakening and destroying the APC, before the 2019 general elections.
The opposition party noted that the plot by the governor involved unrelenting campaigns against Amaechi, a former governor and other chieftains of the APC.
APC said: “In the latest manifestation of the plot, Wike and the Rivers State government paid a whopping $1.5 million to a movie producer to produce and syndicate fabricated video clips on how Amaechi and the Rivers Commissioner of Police purportedly plan to rig the December 10 legislative rerun in the state. Such a rigging plot exists only in the demented mind of Wike and other Rivers PDP leaders.
“The desperation of the members of the factionalised PDP to demonise and bring down Amaechi is callous, vindictive, wicked, diversionary and the height of betrayal.
“We are aware of the fact that Wike and the PDP are desperate to pull down Amaechi, so to ensure that our expected impact during the forthcoming Rivers rerun legislative elections is reduced to the barest minimum. By reducing the influence of Amaechi and ridiculing him, the target of destroying APC and the Presidency of Buhari will be easily achieved.”
The opposition party insisted that Wike and other members of the PDP were not ready for the rerun, making them to opt for blackmail, as a way of escape the defeat that awaited them on December 10.
It said: “This initial plot hatched in Wike’s office at the Rivers State Government House, Port Harcourt was to contract a popular movie producer in the Nollywood industry to assemble different clips of the Transportation Minister at different times, saying things as someone negotiating a price with some people. The idea was to project the minister as if he was asking judges to pervert justice, but the plot was later abandoned, when the affected judges were contacted.
“The embattled judges were said to have vehemently opposed the idea, which they said might backfire. The governor’s hatchet men and spin doctors, who were worried that they might be asked to refund the money approved for the project, then suggested the idea of implicating the Rivers Commissioner of Police and the top echelon of the police in the state.
“The video of a meeting between APC chieftains will be aired, with someone speaking in the Rivers Police Commissioner’s voice, purportedly showing them discussing plans on how to rig the forthcoming rerun elections. We wish to alert the general public to watch out, as a concocted video clip aimed at throwing mud at the Police Commissioner in Rivers State is set to be uploaded on different platforms, including YouTube.”
The APC also asked the state’s governor and other members of the PDP to leave alone President Buhari, the transportation minister and other leaders of the party, but to concentrate their efforts on rescuing their drowning party, for Nigerians to have a virile opposition, not the one that was perpetually factionalised.
But, Wike berated the leadership of INEC for allegedly releasing a list of ad hoc staff, with APC ward chairmen and secretaries as Assistant Presiding Officers (APOs), while charging PDP members in Rivers to resist “politically-engineered” arrests
He claimed that majority of the APC ward chairmen and secretaries listed as APOs were fraudulently tagged staff of the University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT).
He said: “They think that my love for peace is a sign of weakness, but I want to declare that enough is enough. We are supposed to be under an era of change, but the love for fraud by INEC and police is unprecedented
“Anyone whose son or daughter is on the fraudulent INEC list should tell him/her to stay away on election day.
”All these desperate actions are geared towards the plot to rig in favour of particular candidates, but the candidates will not win. Rivers people must be allowed to vote persons of their choice.”
Wike also alleged that the security agencies were working with APC leaders to release fake police and army uniforms to thugs for electoral fraud.
He said: “Nobody should intimidate you with security agents. Resist any arrest. You must move round in groups to promote resistance of the robbers of mandates.
“They are threatening that I will be the first governor they will assassinate. They are threatening that they will show me that they are security agencies, but I will always protect the interest of Rivers State, no matter the threats.”
The REC, however, described the governor’s allegations as untrue, while cautioning him against reckless and provocative statements that could heighten tension, insisting that there would be no election in Tai-Ogoni LGA.
Wike fired back, declaring that during the March 19 rerun that INEC suspended elections in eight LGAs of the state, including Tai, only for the same electoral commission to wake up four months later to allegedly concoct results in favour of the APC.
