Posted on: 06:05 Sun, 03 Apr 2016



The Rivers State Chapter of the All
Progressives Congress (APC) said
after a careful study of the facts on
ground, it has come out with a
conclusion that what took place on
March 19 was not the expected
rerun State and National Assembly
elections but mere allocation of
votes to the ruling party in the
State, the Peoples Democratic Party
(PDP), by the Independent National
Electoral Commission (INEC).
The party said INEC officials did so
to avoid being killed by Wike and
his gang of killers.

The party in a statement signed by
its State Chairman, Dr. Davies
Ibiamu Ikanya, outrightly rejected
the results so far announced by
INEC, saying that nothing but the
total cancellation of the process
and the holding of fresh rerun polls
would be acceptable to it.

“We wish to put on record our total
and uncompromising rejection of
the results of the March 19, 2016
rerun elections so far announced
by INEC as these do not in any way
reflect the current political realities
on ground in Rivers State.

These results, which indicate a
mysterious landslide victory for
PDP, were allocated to the ruling
party in the State following
unrelenting threats by Governor
Nyesom Wike to the effect that
anybody coming to conduct any
election that would not favour PDP
should first write their wills before
coming to the State.

“The effect of these threats and
their practical demonstration as
seen in how people were burnt,
beheaded and buried alive during
the rerun elections can clearly be
seen in the shameful manner INEC
is awarding victory to PDP,” Rivers
APC said.

The party in the statement issued
on Sunday in Port Harcourt said
there was nothing different
between what happened on March
19, 2016 and during the widely
discredited elections of March 28
and April 11, 2015 cancelled by the
courts, which also ordered the
rerun elections.

It said this was not a coincidence
considering that the apparatus used
for both elections were basically the
same.

“From the Police leadership to most
of the INEC officials and INEC ad-
hoc staff, the characters that
organised the 2015 general
elections were the same characters
that organised the March 19, 2016
rerun elections and it will be
foolhardy to expect any different
result.

All these characters were set up by
the former disgraced PDP
administration rejected by
Nigerians during the 2015 polls”,
Rivers APC said.

It berated Governor Wike for
claiming that APC was not in a
position to win an election in the
State, and for accusing Minister of
Transportation, Rt. Hon. Rotimi
Amaechi, of sponsoring violence to
remain politically relevant.

“Everyone knows that Wike is the
one who has been sponsoring
violence in Rivers State and not
Amaechi,” the party said, adding:

“If Amaechi did not employ
violence as Governor of Rivers
State to stop Wike from succeeding
him in 2015, is it now that he is far
away in Abuja as a Minister of the
Federal Republic of Nigeria that he
would do so?

“Rather than the vain attempt to
drag his name into the mud,
Amaechi should be commended for
not encouraging APC members to
retaliate the wanton killing of its
members by PDP, which would
have turned Rivers State into
another Somalia.

“If Wike feels that he is very
popular let him allow free and fair
election devoid of his gang of
killers and he will see how he is
hated in Rivers State.

Time will tell the heroic role played
by Amaechi in this dispensation. As
we watch the macabre dance in
Rivers State we expect the APC
Government at the centre not to
allow PDP to decimate our ranks
any further in view of the strategic
roles we played in freeing Nigeria
from the inept PDP administration
that would have completely
grounded the country if it was
reelected.”