ELECTORATES in the Rivers state will this morning (Saturday) be
exercising their legitimate franchise to decide the authentic representatives
of the people in the National and House of Assembly for different
constituencies affected by the re-run in compliance to the ruling of the court.
Already, the tension has gone extremely high in the state
with records of casualties and desperation including killings and other forms
of violence.
However, the Nigerian Police Force has
assured the electorates and residents in the state to ignore several threats
from political parties stating the Police have made adequate arrangement and
provided enough personnel towards ensuring that peace and orderliness prevailed
throughout the election.
According to reports, two major, two soldiers were killed in a gun battle
between the two camps apart from several others that were injured.
Two major contenders in the elections; the All Progressive
Congress (APC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have never seized from
trading words out of desperation to win the elections.
From the camp of the APC, Dr. Dakuku Peterside who was the
governorship candidate of the Party and now appointed the Director-General of
NIMASA accused the PDP’s state governor, Chief Nyesom Wike and other members of
the Party of culpability.
“What has happened today reinforces our earlier position on
the conflagration that is capable of resulting from hate speeches of Wike and
members of the PDP.
“How can this endless loss of lives be explained on the eve
of an election? Those who are responsible for these unnecessary deaths and
violence in the state have indeed taken Rivers state and the entire country for
a ride for too long.
“But we must not continue like this. This is a rerun
election, not war. We have all watched in the last couple of weeks, the
governor’s utterances and instructions. We know that the fruits of his inciting
speeches would be harvested in a matter of time. The world can now see the
consequences of those statements. I think this madness must stop”, Peterside
said.
In a similar vein, the APC National Secretary, Mai Buni has
carpeted the state governor over the inciting statements credited to him
including alleged death threats.
“On Tuesday, Nyesom Wike accused INEC Commissioner, Mrs Amina
Zakari, of an unsubstantiated and cooked up plot to swap election result sheets
in the yet-to-be-conducted election. He went ahead to issue a death threat to
the INEC Commissioner over the unsubstantiated and cooked-up plot.
“The APC takes Nyesom Wike’s death threats and campaign of
calumny against critical national institutions, including the Nigerian Army,
very seriously. Under Nyesom Wike’s watch, the country and indeed the
international community have been traumatized by the daily lynching, maiming,
killing and beheading of APC supporters in Rivers State.
In a counter-statement, the PDP in a statement through the
National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh accused the APC of culpability
stating that the violence in the state was a plot towards dragging the state
for an emergency rule having lost out by the ruling of the Supreme Court that
affirmed the state governor as duly elected.
“The Party is privy to a grand design by the APC to
orchestrate violence in the state with a view to truncating the election,
having realized that the PDP and its candidates are more popular and ready to
win overwhelmingly the rerun.
“We are aware that the orchestration of violence is designed
to serve as a stimulus to the planned imposition of a state of emergency to
enable the APC to forcefully take over the state, which it failed to get
through the ballot box.
“We also know the design to unleash violence is behind the
recent infamous call by the APC spokesperson in Ondo State, Omo’ba Abayomi
Adesanya, for emergency rule in Rivers state. What else, apart from the
execution of this plot explains the complaints from our candidates and members
in Rivers State of constant threats by partisan security operatives as well as the
recent gale of arrests, attacks and killing of PDP supporters in the State?
Metus asked.
Analytically, it will be recalled that when the Supreme Court
made its ruling in favour of the PDP in the state, precisely to Wike, there was
no form of violence or chaos which is indicative of sportsmanship and maturity
of the APC. Even after the apex court explained its reasons for arriving at the
conclusion, despite the fact that the Party did not welcome the reasons, the
atmosphere was peaceful, and no threat or violence has been recorded.
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