Congress (APC) Comrade Timi Frank has warned against what he described as
impending anarchy looming in the six Niger Delta states orchestrating by
the ruling government at center by working in connivance with the Nigerian
Army to perpetuate mayhem and disenfranchise Nigerians in the region.
In the said looming crisis in Niger Delta region, Frank fingered President
Muhammadu Buhari, Chief of Army staff, National Chairman of APC, Minister
of Transport among others.
Frank, who recalled how he raised series of alarms in the wake to the
February 23rd Presidential elections, informing Nigerians about the evil
plot by the APC to suppress voters and intimidate citizens in opposition
strongholds (particularly in the Niger Delta), said the military personnel
were used as an alibi in carrying out the heinous crimes on the citizens
because of its dire desperation in controlling the oil rich regions.
In a statement signed Friday in Abuja, Frank said the recent invasion of a
paramount ruler and highness of Okrika, Chief Ateke Tom in a commando
style without any prior provocation, proved to the height of desperation
and chaos in the wake to the state elections.
“This worrisome trend is about to rear it’s ugly head again, this time
headed by the presidency itself and the military authorities. The recent
statements credited to President Muhammadu Buhari in Your, Akwa Ibom
state, suggesting that the senatorial elections may have been rigged
because it’s candidate lost and vowing to reclaim what was lost, rather
than approaching the courts for redress, indicts the President and the APC
of its desperation in declaring itself winner by any means necessary
without recourse to the electoral act in conducting free, fair and
credible elections.
“This brazen desperation has taken a new dimension with the recruitment of
over 1000 political thugs, distributed across the Niger Delta states,
working as undercover Ad Hoc staff with the aid of the military to
forcefully disenfranchise the electorates and causing mayhem in units were
the ruling party may be loosing. It is instructive also to note, the
deliberate arson and destruction of INEC offices and properties as
witnessed in Uyo, Akwa Ibom and the indiscriminate arrests of opposition
leaders in Port Harcourt all in the Niger Delta.
“In view of the glaring disregard of an existing Supreme Court judgement
barring the military from any polling unit during elections, which was
initiated by the APC in 2015 and adhered to by the PDP, it will be safe
to assume that we have gone back to the dark draconian days by the
military junta.”
The political activist, however, called on the people of Niger Delta to
come out en mass and vote for their preferred candidate irrespective of
fear and intimidation.
“The Ijaw nation and the Niger Delta has never been defeated and cannot,
now in a political dispensation. We must resist this new desperation of
desecrating our land with the blood of the innocent for the sake of a
“wicked cabal’ bent on ravaging the spoils of the region for selfish
gains.
“I am calling on the international community and the ICC to be put on
notice over the unprovoked attacks on innocent Nigerians by the Nigerian
military, working with APC chieftains in causing chaos in opposition
strongholds. Let the world bear witness to the outcome of the
Gubernatorial elections.”