Wike Instructed Rivers LG Bosses to Disrupt APC’s Campaigns, Cole Alleges

Nume Ekeghe in Lagos, Kingsley Nwezeh and Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja

The gubernatorial candidate of the All Progressives Congress(APC) in Rivers State, Mr. Tonye Cole has alleged that the Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike has ordered all local government chairmen across the state not to allow the APC to hold any form of campaign or rallies in the state.
This, he alleged was part of the governor’s plot to cause violence in Rivers State.

Cole said this yesterday, when he appeared on ‘The Morning Show’ a breakfast programme on Arise News Channel.
He said: “One of the things we have heard is that they have given instructions to all the local government chairmen to do two things: First to prevent APC from holding any kind of rally and disrupt all our rallies. So, the local government chairmen are under threat that they will be disciplined severely if they allow us hold any rally.

“We also know they have been given strict instructions that they must not support Alhaji Atiku Abubakar in any way. Whether they have been given instructions to support Tinubu, I haven’t heard, but I know for a fact that they are not supporting Atiku and they have told us APC in Rivers state must be totally disrupted.”
Responding to a question on who Wike would support for presidency, Cole said: “Wike had said he would make an announcement on the 31st January, on whom he is supporting.

“We waited for that announcement and that announcement did not come. However, he did say that all his party members would know who he is supporting. So, maybe he has told them, I cannot confirm.”
Cole added: “Most of the violence perpetrated in Rivers State have been by the ruling party, it is laughable that he has been at the forefront of anti-party activities and would now accuse us of exactly the same thing.

“It is on record that our state has actively invited and brought all members of other parties to commissioning, giving money to other parties and has tried to destabilise APC in Rivers State which has failed.
“What was sent out yesterday making an excuse to deny a PDP faction that they are fighting hard with, which is an internal party thing has nothing to do with APC. The party is factionalised in Rivers state and this about them and not about me.”

Furthermore, he alleged that the police in the state was not being neutral and that an urgent intervention was needed to prevent political related killings.
He added: “That call for a state of emergency is driven by the fact that when attacks began, the information, we gathered was that it was going to escalate up until election day. At the last election in 2019, when it got to election day, there were parts of the state that were totally taken over by armed thugs especially in my hometown Abonnema whereby I got to Abonnema for the 2019 presidential election, and they had taken over the entire town, there were sporadic shootings for hours to make sure no one would come in.

“I was driving into the town and they were telling me no APC can stay here, they were shooting and all of that. We want to make sure that we avoid the kind of mass death that occurred as a result of all of this.”