APC Plotting to Use Militias to Disrupt Guber Election, A’Ibom Alleges
Udom Emmanuel
Tobi Soniyi in Lagos
The Akwa Ibom State Government has formally invited the security agencies to investigate various claims to run down the government and cause mayhem in the build-up to the general elections in February next year.
In a letter to the Inspector General of Police, the Director-General of the State Security Service and the National Security Adviser the state said “available intelligence has revealed a plan for a systematic rubbishing with lies of the governor’s private life that has nothing to do with the governance of the state.”
The state also called on the security agencies to investigate the allegation that “military and police uniforms are being sown in a particular federal constituency to be used by thugs during the election.
“The thugs to be imported from one of the states of Niger Delta would come in through the creeks at the back of Qua River Hotel Eket, Eastern Obolo Riverside and Utaewa in Ikot Abasi River.”
Senator Bassey Akpan (Peoples Democratic Party – Always Ibom North East) had last week on the floor of the Senate drew the attention of the Senate and by extension, the good people of Nigeria to a plot being hatched by the leadership of the All Progressives Congress in Akwa Ibom State to cause mayhem in the state during the gubernatorial election slated for Saturday, March 2, 2019.
According to him, the plot of the Akwa Ibom APC chieftains to scuttle the election in the state through violence, is to ensure cancellation of election in the state on that day for an isolated exercise later, upon which the so-called federal might would now be used to right it in favour of their candidate.”
Following up on this, PDP Publicity Secretary in the state, Ini EmemObong had in a reaction to the detention by the police of the State Commissioner of Environment, Dr Iniobong Essien, over the erection of campaign billboard said “the police must know that Nigerians and indeed the international community are watching these troubling developments.”
He added, “If this is the beginning of the Federal might that the APC has been promising to use in capturing Akwa Ibom, we can assure the world that the people of Akwa Ibom State who are solidly behind Governor Udom Emmanuel will resist this type Federal might with every fibre of our being.”
EmemObong said the PDP had received an intelligent report that APC intended to cause the destruction of its buses and property in order to raise a security red flag and stimulate the immediate mass deployment of security operatives and the ultimate invasion of the state during 2019 elections.
PDP said it had put the country and the international community on notice, that as a law abiding party, it abhored violence as seen in the just concluded primaries which was a rancour-free exercise.
The statement also condemned the illegal invitation and detaintion of the state commissioner for Environment Dr Iniobong Essien on Tuesday October 16 by a Special Squad purported to have been sent by the Police IGP Ibrahim Idris following a petition alleged to have been written by the state chairman of the APC, Ini Okopido.
While explaining that the commissioner was going about his official duty, the PDP in the state called on President Muhammadu Buhari to cause the Inspector General of Police to explain why a Special Squad claiming to act at his behest would be sent to the state to harass the commissioner over a minor issue as the erection of a billboard.
