RERUN ELECTION: Looming danger in Rivers as Amaechi spits fire

There is looming danger in the coming weeks in Rivers State as the electorate prepare for the legislative election rerun slated for December 10 by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.

This is as the minster of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi has said that he would match the state governor ‘threat for threat and intimidation for intimidation’.

The first attempt by INEC to conduct the rerun election in the state virtually turned the state into a war zone while a second attempt was postponed over fears of violence, before the electoral body was armtwisted to fix the December date.

Indications that the rescheduled election would not be any different became apparent after INEC announced the new date, with the state Governor, Nyesom Wike announcing that the people of the state would not allow any form of rigging, warning INEC not to collude with the All Progressives Congress, APC to sabotage the will of the people.

Threatning to win all the seats up for grabs at all costs, Wike’s main rival and former boss, Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, also said he would match the state governor ‘threat for threat and intimidation for intimidation’.

Speaking at a rally in Berra, Gokana Local Government Area of the state, Ameachi said the APC will match whatever antics and strategies deployed by the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and Governor Wike during the exercise.

Calling Wike a thug who is not fit for governance, the former Rivers governor insisted that the APC will not take security for granted like it did in previous elections in the state.

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Amaechi said: “If there is one place APC shouldn’t campaign, it is Ogoniland but Wike said he must win here.

“It is not as if he is God. Only God can say that but since he is not God, he will fail.

“Wike can never be God. The battle is not in Ogoniland but in the Ikwerre and Ahoada axis.

“So he had better forget here (Ogoniland). He said he will deploy everything.

“Anything he wants to deploy let him deploy, we will deploy our own.”

Tension over the rerun  hightened about two weeks ago when about three people were arrested at a printing press in Port Harcourt for printing fake INEC result sheets for the election. One of the alleged culprits has been confirmed to be a cousin of Dakuku Peterside, who lost out to Wike in the guber poll. The development pitched the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, against APC in a war of words over the authenticity of the event and who contracted the printing.

Though the APC and its governorship candidate in the 2015 general elections in the state, Dakuku Peterside, have distanced themselves from the allegations, Governor Wike has insisted that INEC and APC have questions to answer while also accusing the police of trying to bury the case by allegedly transferring it to its Zone 6 headquarters in Calabar.

By Timothy Enietan-Matthews…

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