R-L: Deputy Governor Ipalibo Harry Banigo, Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, Speaker Dabo Adams and Former Minister of Transport, DrAbiye Sekibo with other Rivers people marching to the Rivers State Police Command to protest police brutality and killings in Port Harcourt on Thursday.
While Governor Wike called for the transfer of some senior police officers he accused of rigging the recently held rerun election for the All Progressives Congress (APC), the APC Deputy National Chairman asked the Rivers State Police Command to investigate those arrested for ballot box snatching, their sponsors in the last election and bring them to book.
The APC protesters also alleged that the PDP and the state government were jolted by the fact that the suspects so far paraded at the Police headquarters in Abuja were spilling the beans about their alleged sponsors.
Oji Ngofa further warned that should there be any breakdown of law and order in the state or attack on any of the police officers the governor wants transferred, the Police should not look elsewhere.
The protesters carried placards with various inscriptions. Among the protesters were Asita O. Asita, deputy governorship candidate in the 2015 poll, Dr Davies Ikanya, Chairman of APC in Rivers and other chieftains of the party.
Meanwhile, the Rivers State Government has dismissed an online audio leak alleging that Governor Nyesom Wike had illicit contacts with officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the run up to the rerun elections on 10 December.
“We categorically deny this latest allegation as a sick fabrication, and an outright lie. Governor Wike never made any contact with INEC officials, in person or by telephone.
”Saharareporters.com is the online propaganda bullhorn of the All Progressives Congress (APC). Their publications are typically false, and the writers are professional hawkers of fiction.
The denial was contained in a statement by Dr Austin Tam George, Commissioner for Information. He described the audio as an impersonation of Governor Wike, using a voice changer technology.
“The voice changer technology is often used by teenagers, especially in South Korea and Japan to launch innocent technological pranks at each other, mainly for laughs.
The use of such a technology to blackmail a governor is a new criminal low for the APC, a party already widely discredited for its addiction to falsehood.”
The APC National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, however, said the leaked audio recording revealed the Rivers State governor admitting to bribing some electoral officials and threatening to kill them if his instructions were not followed.
He pointed that by the revelations from the leaked audio recordings, it is obvious that Governor Wike may have engaged in unwholesome conducts that might have compromised the integrity of the electoral process and undermined his office as the Chief Security Officer of a state.
He said the only logical conclusion from this therefore is that the electoral victories of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) may have been achieved through underhand dealings and intimidation of officials.
The APC said that on December 6, 2016, it alerted security agencies on reports of a massive arms build-up and other sinister plots that Wike and the PDP planned to execute on the day of the legislative rerun elections in Rivers State.
According to APC, Nigerians have watched with grave concern how the process of the just concluded legislative rerun election has led to the death of ordinary citizens in the state including security officers. The statement that Governor Wike appeared to have made on record has now pointed directly at where responsibility should be placed for the violence that attended the election.
The party said it is also evident that the allegations by the Rivers State government and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of an assassination threat on Wike and the allegation by Wike that APC governors funded violence in the state during the election might have been deliberately contrived to cover-up the role that the governor had played in the violence that attended the election.
”The APC condemns any form of violence as it relates to elections or any other matter. In this instance, we urge security agencies to do the needful and ensure that sponsors and perpetrators of violence, no matter how highly placed, are brought to justice.”
Okafor Ofiebor/Port Harcourt
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