Rerun polls: Wike raises the alarm, claims security agencies plotting to assassinate him

Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State has alleged that some security agencies in his state are threatening to assassinate him over the December 10 rerun elections in Rivers.

Governor Wike made the allegation when he spoke on Thursday in Gokhana Local Government Area when he the flagged off rehabilitation of two General Hospitals in the place.

“For me, they are threatening that I will be the first governor they will assassinate. They are threatening that they will show me that they are security agencies. But, I will always protect the interest of Rivers State, no matter the threat,” Wike said.

He then urged the Gokhana to stand against any form of threat from security agencies on the Election Day, adding that he had also discovered plots by security agencies to use fake police and army uniforms for political thugs on the Election Day.

The governor who also accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of recruiting members of the All Progressive Congress (APC) as Assistant Presiding Officers for the election said,
“INEC has released a fake list of adhoc staff for the rerun elections before the conclusion of their mandatory training.

“Majority of those on the list are known APC ward chairmen and ward secretaries who are mainly unemployed, but listed by INEC as staff of the University of Port Harcourt.

“They think that my love for peace is a sign of weakness. But I want to declare that enough is enough. We are supposed to be under an era of change, but the love for fraud by INEC and police is
unprecedented.

“Anyone whose son or daughter is on that fraudulent INEC list should tell him/her to stay away on Election Day. All these desperate actions are geared towards the plot to rig in favour of a particular candidate. But that candidate will not win. The people of Rivers South-East senatorial district must be allowed to vote persons of their choice”

However, the police and INEC, in their separate reactions refuted Governor Wike’s allegations.

In its reaction, Rivers State Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Omoni Nnamdi, argued that it was not possible that any security agency would plan to assassinate the governor. According to him, such threat cannot come from the police.

Read also: Appeal court sacks APC Rivers Assembly member over massiveelection rigging

Omoni said, “There is no way anybody can plan to kill the governor. He has paraphernalia of security. Is it the Police, Navy, Army, DSS or Air Force? Well, I am not aware of such threat.”

Also in their reaction, INEC’s Rivers State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Elder Aniedi Ikoiwak, stated that no member of any political party was employed by INEC as adhoc staff.

“I don’t know about that. What I know is that we only recruited students of federal universities. Where we do not have enough corps members and staff of INEC we now use students to complement it. How can we include party members?” he asked.

Wike has been at daggers drawn with his former boss, Rotimi Amaechi, now Minister of Transportation, over political control of Rivers State. The face-off has sometimes taken a frightening dimension with very violent conduct among their various supporters, leading to blood shed and postponement of outstanding elections in the state.

 

 

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