Rivers State Governor and Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, Rt.
Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi says the renewed upsurge in militancy in
parts of the state ahead of Saturday’s Governorship and state Houses of
Assembly elections is as a result of the quest of Mrs. Patience Jonathan
to control the affairs of the state and further mastermind the rigging of
the elections in favour of PDP.
Amaechi stated this on Thursday at an interactive session with
stakeholders at the Obi Wali International Conference centre, Port
Harcourt to brief them on his administration’s readiness for Saturday’s
Gubernatorial and State legislative elections.
Amaechi, assured the stakeholders of adequate protection of lives and
property following his recent meeting with the security operatives who
have agreed to be fair to all during the polls.
According to him, “what the security operatives and the state government
agreed at the meeting was to design a mechanism on how to stop the attempt
by militants and PDP thugs to snatch and hijack INEC materials during the
Saturday polls. Voters and Party agents should not allow this hoodlums
take over the election. They can’t kill all of us. We are aware that
Militants and hired PDP thugs who claim to be loyalists to Mrs. Jonathan
are planning mayhem. But, the Police and the Military have assured the
state government they will deploy more troops to guarantee safety and
protection of lives and property.”
“What am assuring you now is security to come out and vote and to also say
to INEC that we need the result sheets at the units and collation centres.
Even if the staff they employed are all PDP members but we still need the
result sheets. We don’t want anybody to force us on whom to vote ,we want
our votes to count. Let the wife of the president remain in her house and
not force a candidate on us. The security in our meeting with them assured
us that votes will count and I hope they will keep to that.”
“The security operatives requested that I should address you and assure
you that they will not be bias and I hope they will keep to that. The PDP
guber candidate Nyesom Wike, can go ahead to abuse us as he wants, but the
fight to ensure a free, fair and credible election is inevitable. Don’t be
intimidated by these forces of darkness. The Police and the Military owe
us a duty and responsibility to create a conducive atmosphere for our
people to exercise their franchise. Your responsibility as citizens of
this state is to come out enmass and vote”.
“The APC guber candidate Dr. Dakuku Peterside is our candidate. Rivers
People have a choice to vote Dakuku or Wike, but, as for me, we will all
vote for Dakuku Peterside. Nobody has the right or the powers to force any
candidate on Rivers people without allowing the people to make their
choice of leadership. Our votes must count, there will be no bias this
time around. The responsibility of INEC is to provide all the voting
materials and result sheets to collate the votes at the polling units”,
Amaechi said.
The State Chief Executive expressed dismay over the unlawful activities of
Militants and hired political thugs by the PDP in the Ogba-Egbema-Ndoni
local government area and ordered the immediate ban of motorcyclists
popularly called (Okada )in and around the local government until the
Saturday elections are concluded.
“We are all aware of the Unlawful activities of militants and hired PDP
thugs. The killings of APC supporters have become alarming and the
security operatives have assured us of protection of lives and property “.
“I want to call on all those living in Omoku and it’s environs to come out
and vote. Security operatives have put in place crack teams to track down
offenders. The intimidation by the Police and Military during the last
Presidential poll is over and will not repeat again”, Amaechi explained.
He called on traditional rulers, opinion leaders and party faithfuls to
assist government sensitize their people at the grassroots on the need for
the people to come out enmass and exercise their franchise.
”I call on traditional rulers, politicians and opinion leaders to take
this singular message to their people to come out enmass and vote
candidates of their choice. What happened during the March 28 Presidential
Poll will not occur any longer”, Amaechi noted.