Rivers State Governor and Director-General of Buhari Presidential
Campaign, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi has made an urgent appeal to
President Goodluck Jonathan to call on supporters and members of his
party, the PDP not to unleash violence on APC supporters in Rivers State
and across the country.
Amaechi spoke after leading APC presidential candidate, Gen. Muhammadu
Buhari and others on a sympathy visit to the victims of the attack
numbering about nine at the Kelsey Harrison Hospital in Port Harcourt on
The victims admitted at the Kelsey Harrison hospital were already being
treated for wounds sustained from the attack by the suspected PDP thugs.
Amaechi said the President, apart from calling his men to order should
also condemn the attack on the APC members by PDP hoodlums.
He said: “Imagine that the President goes to campaign in Katsina or in
Kano and his convoy is attacked, imagine that, we will condemn it. In the
same manner, we expect the President and the Peoples’ Democratic Party
should condemn this violence that has been visited on us by their members
and we expect that they should be able to control their members”.
“The President can’t be promising us free, fair and violence-free
elections, if he says violence-free election, and here we have already
experienced violence, what is he expecting us to do?” he asked.
Amaechi also called on President Jonathan as Commander-In-Chief to provide
needed security for all Nigerians irrespective of which party they belong.
“I have continued to say that if the state is not able to provide security
for individuals, individuals begin to provide security for themselves and
I pray that people don’t begin to provide security for themselves. I pray
that all of us should come out and support the state to provide security
and the state must be ready to provide that security”.
According to him, the PDP by these attacks on APC supporters has shown
that it is not ready to ensure peaceful or violence-free polls.
“The fact that people are being attacked here and there is an indication
that the PDP is not ready for a free, fair and violence-free elections”,
he stated.
Meanwhile, Governor Amaechi said the state would provide free medical
service for the victims of the attack and would extend financial support
to their families during the time they would be in hospital for medical
Also speaking, Rivers State APC gubernatorial candidate, Dakuku Peterside
expressed displeasure at the attack by PDP supporters.
He said the only way for Nigerians to trust President Goodluck Jonathan
over his avowed desire for peaceful elections in the country is for the
President to publicly condemn these attacks and ensure they don’t
re-occur.
Peterside said: “This is an unfortunate trend. I don’t want to believe
that violence will characterize the 2015 elections because that is not
what any one of us desire. The President has said severally, whether he
means it or not is a different matter, that his ambition is not worth the
blood of anybody and we agree with him to that extent but again, it is one
thing to share your philosophy, it is another thing to see your people go
clearly against what you believe in and you are doing nothing about it. I
am optimistic that the President and his team and members of his party,
the PDP will come out strongly and condemn this act of violence visited on
members of the APC in Rivers State”.
He said his party, the APC believes in peaceful polls and using peaceful
means to realize political gains.
It was gathered that the APC supporters yesterday on their way to the Gen.
Muhammadu Buhari Presidential campaign flag-off in Port Harcourt were
attacked at Elele, and between Emohua and Sama Abalama in Kalabari Kingdom
and between Kpoki and Kira in Ogoni land.