Rivers APC Tackles Wike over Defence of PDP Protest at INEC Office
Blessing Ibunge in Port Harcourt
The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State has criticised Governor Nyesom Wike over his defensive response on the ongoing protest by supporters of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at the office of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Port Harcourt.
In a statement by the spokesperson of the APC in the state, Darlington Nwauju, the party said that the comments by the state governor on a media chat allegedly confirmed that PDP, police and INEC collaborated in attempt to manipulate the results of March 18, 2023 elections in the state.
Nwauju alleged that the PDP allegedly connived with the police to thwart the will of Rivers people, adding that the protesters are at the INEC office to aid the manipulation of results.
The APC spokesperson stated: “By virtue of his live media chat today(yesterday), Gov Wike confirmed that he, INEC and the Nigeria Police arrested the three APC lawyers ostensibly to obtain our party’s evidences of the electoral heist that took place in Rivers State through coercion.
“By his own admittance, he connived with the operatives of the Nigeria Police to steal APC documents.
“By this very public confession of Gov Wike, it is very clear that the laptops and other evidences critical to the APC litigation at the Election Petitions Tribunal were hacked into in order to steal information. This to our, mind, should be of serious concern to Nigerians, especially to the Body of Benchers and lawyers in Nigeria as the governor’s actions and utterances keep casting a huge question mark on the integrity of the legal profession.
“We now know reason why the three APC lawyers arrested on April 1st 2023 were first taken to the C4i Surveillance Intelligence Unit at Hypercity, a facility allegedly owned by him. After all, the Police at the State Criminal Investigations Department (SCID) and INEC staff from the ICT department confirmed that there was nothing incriminating or untoward about the documents found on these lawyers.
“The media chat has also confirmed our fears as Rivers people that Gov Wike actually positioned the PDP thugs at INEC office and has been working with them which led to the attack on our Governorship candidate, Tonye Cole on Monday 3rd April 2023 and the subsequent brazen attack on the APC state secretariat at Woji road GRA same day.
“We are fully aware that the so-called protesters stationed at the INEC PH office are not there to prevent the smuggling in of results that were written anywhere as the Governor claimed in his media chat; we are rather aware that the protesters are there to give shield to the INEC officials who are still busy writing results to match the figures that were ridiculously announced in favour of the PDP on the 18th of March 2023.
“We have also been informed that the venue of the election petition tribunal (EPT) shall be given the INEC treatment and then, top APC leaders in the state have also been marked for brutal attacks in order to ensure that the parties quest to recover its mandate through the Courts does not see the daylight.
“We are mortified at the intimidation of Mr Kayode Okikiolu of ChannelsTV, one of the anchors of today’s media chat who asked very salient questions about the attack on our party secretariat. The attitude of Gov Wike to Mr Okikiolu emblematizes the totalitarian leadership style with which the outgoing governor has run the affairs of the State for almost eight years.
“Let the people of Nigeria judge the manner of democracy Rivers state is currently witnessing,” Nwauju added.
