By Nwaorgu Faustinus
The committee set up by the Rivers State Chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to investigate increasing cases of electoral violence in the State has indicted the rival Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Submitting the committee’s report to Rivers State APC Chairman, Dr. Davies Ibiamu Ikanya, on Monday at the party’s State Secretariat in Port Harcourt, committee Chairman, Prince Peter Odika, said the committee was able to list 150 sins
committed against APC by PDP leadership and members in the course of the on going campaign for the 2015 elections.
“These sins revolve around attacks against APC faithful, billboards, and LG Secretariat by the misguided PDP elements in Rivers State ahead of the March/April 2015 general elections,” Prince Odika, who is the Rivers State APC Deputy Chairman, said. He pleaded that the report should be treated with the urgency it deserves before PDP engulfs the State into crisis that
will not only send more APC members and other innocent persons to their earlier graves but also truncate the country’s nascent democracy.
Prince Odika disclosed that at the top of the list is the violent disruption of APC’s campaign rally in Okrika last Wednesday, which culminated in the death of a policeman. He alleged that the attack was principally targeted to eliminate the party’s gubernatorial candidate, Dr.
Dakuku Peterside. “If they had succeeded, these enemies of our democracy would have engulfed the State in an unprecedented crisis the end of which no one could have predicted,” he said.
Receiving the report, Dr. Ikanya congratulated Prince Odika and his committee for a job well done. He assured them that the aim of setting up the committee would be actualised as the report would be sent to the United Nations, Amnesty International, ECOWAS and other major international bodies without delay.
“I commend the Inspector General of Police, Alh. Suleiman Abba, for directing that the Okrika attempt on our lives should be investigated. We wish that those behind this devilish attack are promptly arrested; if not our lives will not be safe anymore,” Ikanya said.
Looking ahead to the elections, the party chairman said: “To the people of Rivers State, the choice of stopping further promotion of violence lies in their hands by ensuring that all the candidates fielded by PDP in Rivers State are voted against to punish them for making our State a mockery before the international community. The choice before them is to choose
between darkness and light, devil and God, between occultic forces and Christianity, between democracy and anti-democracy forces. The choice is ours to make.”
Ikanya appealed to the international community to come to the party’s aid, saying: “We can no longer fold our arms and watch while we are being viciously attacked and slaughtered by people whose mission and vision in politics is to spread violence as their own way of grabbing power, having seen that they have been overwhelmingly rejected by the electorate. What makes the situation more pathetic is that security agencies in Rivers
State, including the police and the Department of State Security (DSS), have failed to make any arrest or call the PDP leadership to order simply because they are controlled by the PDP-led Federal Government, which is desperate to take over Rivers State at all cost.”
The fact-finding committee inaugurated on 19th January, 2015 had Prince Peter Odika the Deputy Chairman of Rivers APC as Chairman, Barr. Sogbeye C. Eli, the Rivers State APC Youth Leader, as Secretary. Other members were Chief Emeka Bekee, Secretary of Rivers State APC; Evangelist (Mrs.) Carol Nagbo, Women Leader; Chief Eze C. Eze; Hon. Israel Asiamaka, Okrika Chairman of APC; Chief Victor Ere, Andoni APC Chairman; Hon. Ojukaya Flag-Amachree, former Asaro-Toru Local Government Chairman; Hon. Awongo Ikalama, Chief of Staff to the Speaker of Rivers State House of Assembly; and Chief (Barr.) Obinna JK Chukwu.
Alleges Its 30 Supporters Killed, says ‘We are now endangered
species’
• Demands for the immediate rescue of kidnapped Ndigbara
The Rivers State Chapter of All Progressives Congress (APC) has alleged that over 30 of its supporters have been killed in the political violence that has rocked the State in the past few months. The party stated this in a press statement today, Thursday 26 February 2015.
“Our investigations showed that we have lost no fewer than 30 of our members and supporters in political attacks instigated in parts of the State by agents of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). As painful as this is, we are miffed that no single arrest has been made by the police in connection with these politically-motivated killings calculated to intimidate and annihilate us a political party,” Rivers APC Chairman, Chief Davis Ibiamu Ikanya, said.
Ikanya in a statement issued in Port Harcourt lamented that those behind the killings are becoming increasingly emboldened by the day as demonstrated by their brazen attack on APC’s gubernatorial campaign train in Okrika on 18th February 2015.
“With the shooting, bombing and successful disruption of our Okrika rally which was aimed principally at eliminating our gubernatorial candidate, Dr. Dakuku Adol Peterside, with the successful kidnapping of Fred Ndigbara, a civil servant working in the Media Unit of Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi
Amaechi, the Governor of Rivers State, we indeed need no soothsayer to tell us that we are no longer protected but now endangered species. When a political party is denied the right to canvas for votes in an assumed democratic system, as has been done to us in Okrika, we can only conclude
that Nigeria is slowly but steadily slipping into a state of anarchy. With the lives of our people threatened on daily basis, with the security agencies looking the other way, we have every reason to wonder if the PDP-controlled Federal Government is truly serious that elections will hold
in Rivers State during the general elections scheduled for March and April,” Ikanya said.
The Rivers APC Chairman commended Inspector General of Police, Suleiman Abba, “for ordering full investigation into the madness that happened at Okrika, where one of the policemen providing security at our rally was brutally killed”.
He also commended Zone 6 Assistant Inspector General of Police, Tunde Ogunsakin, for ordering Rivers State Commissioner of Police, CP Dan Bature, to rescue Mr. Fred Ndigbara from the hands of those that kidnapped him while on a democratic duty during the rally of APC at Khana recently. “We
however wish to emphasise that something serious must be done soon to avoid us losing hope on the ability of the police to secure our lives,” Ikanya said.
He added: “PDP and its promoters can’t be allowed to continue to act with impunity as if the police are an extension of the party as being boasted by some of its chieftains. It is very unfortunate and sad that a Police Force that is being sustained and maintained by our taxes should allow its reputation to be ruined by a group of people who do not mean well for our State.
“We hereby demand the immediate rescue of Mr. Fred Ndigbara, a harmless fellow whose only crime is belonging to APC, and that adequate protection be accorded to our gubernatorial candidate and the entire APC leadership in Rivers State. We also demand a stop to the further harassment of our members. We are full citizens of this country and we can no longer tolerate being treated like second class citizens.”
Rivers APC commiserated with the family of the slain policeman, police corporal Ifeanyi Okorie and assured that it will do everything humanly possible to ensure that his children are given the best education that they need to succeed in life. The party thanked the leadership of the Federal
House of Representatives for showing solidarity with Dr. Peterside and the leadership of APC over the unwarranted Okrika attack and for demanding that the security agencies should get to the root of the matter.
