Wike accuses 4 northern govs of doling out N4bn to sponsor mayhem in Rivers rerun

Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike has accused the All Progressives Congress (APC) governors of four northern states; Kano, Bauchi, Plateau and Benue of allegedly releasing a total of N4billion to ensure that the rerun election in the state was won by their party by either hook or crook.

This was also as the governor alleged that the Special Anti Robbery Squad (SARS) of the Police masterminded the deaths and several electoral upheavals recorded in the rerun elections in the state.

Governor Wike who disclosed this in a state-wide broadcast, went further to say that a senior officer of the security body, was caught on camera assaulting a female official of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) at the Port Harcourt City Local Government Area.

According to Wike, the officer in question is being debriefed by the high command of the Police in Abuja.

He said, “We most sincerely sympathize with the families of all those that were deliberately and coldly murdered by the SARS operatives during the ill-fated re-run elections in the state and pray for the peaceful repose of their innocent souls.

“Information available to us indicate that Mr. Akin Fakorede, who was caught on camera physically brutalizing a female electoral officer is currently being debriefed by the police high command in Abuja.

“Unfortunately, the brazen subversion of our democratic rights that took place on December 10, 2016, was carefully planned and orchestrated by some highly-placed and desperate politicians from the state in concert with the Governors of Bauchi, Benue, Kano and Plateau states, who reportedly bankrolled the plan with the sum of N1bn each, at a time they cannot pay salaries of civil servants in the state, let alone embark on development projects.

Read also: Report indicts INEC, Army, Police of sparking electoral violence in Rivers

“If Rivers people could be visited with such a despicably high degree of violence, mayhem and killings by some renegade military and SARS operatives with impunity just to rescue the dying political fortunes of the All Peoples Congress, APC, in a mere legislative re-run elections, then we can now begin to imagine what is likely to happen in the state when the political stakes would be very much higher in 2019.”

However, the APC through its Rivers State Publicity Secretary, Mr Chris Finebone, has described the allegations by Governor Wike as unfounded and said that the party will perform its oversight function over the governor on all projects started prior to the rerun elections.

“The accusations by Wike in his broadcast are mere figments of his wild imagination. No APC governor donated any money for the rerun elections in Rivers State.

“The APC governors merely showed up in solidarity with party members and candidates. APC governors don’t behave like their PDP colleagues. I think the whole obsession with federal might by Governor Wike stems from his use of federal might to rig and kill his way to power in 2015,” Finebone said.

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