Chief Davies Ibiamu Ikanya is the Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State in this piece, he highlights what he describes as the atrocities of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) against APC members and the implications for the general elections. He warns that the state may slip into violence, if the acts of terror are not checked.
The greatest obstacle to democratic consolidation in Nigeria is electoral violence. Pre-election violence is as a result of the rascally disposition of some desperate and greedy politicians, who want to secure electoral victory by subverting the process and undermining the rule of law. Whilst the threat of bloodshed has always been in the air in Rivers State since the countdown to the general elections started, the upsurge in the incidence of violence in the state in recent times is worrisome. Apart from the fact that this phenomenon affects the credibility of the electoral process, the legitimacy of the election results and the rule of law, the nature, extent and magnitude of violence indicate unequivocally that it is a deliberate tool for intimidation and terror adopted as a policy and backed by security institutions who are paid from our commonwealth to protect our citizens.
Electoral violence
Electoral violence is any random or organized act that seeks to determine, delay or otherwise influence an electoral process through threat, verbal intimidation, hate speech, disinformation, physical assault, forced protection, destruction of property or assassination. The aim of electoral violence is either to influence the outcome of the process or to disrupt the entire electoral process.
The Federal Government under the collegiate presidency of Dr. and Dame Goodluck Jonathan adopted a deliberate policy of state-sponsored violence against Rivers people when it deployed Mbu Joseph Mbu intentionally to promote (through manifestly corrupt and illicit means) the ascendancy of Mr. Nyesom Wike to political infamy. Mr. Mbu’s antics are too numerous and very well publicized. However, it may be necessary to remind us that since the day he shamelessly escorted known criminals and outlaws through the streets of Port Harcourt in the guise of a demonstration, violence triumphantly returned to Rivers State
The PDP, having established its machinery for violence, began to unleash mayhem in the form of physical attacks on the APC members, killing and causing grievous bodily harm on our members.
Attack on House of Assembly
The absurdity of the attack on the House of Assembly would confound any right-thinking person who knows that there are 32 members of the House of Assembly out of which, five purportedly tried to impeach the Speaker. In the course of their quest to regain lawful access to the House of Assembly complex, the remaining 27 members were forced to sit on the bare surface of Moscow Road from where Mr. Mbu dispersed them with tear gas. Mr. Mbu left Rivers State in exceedingly controversial circumstances, after presiding over the return of Rivers State to a near state of anarchy into the warm embrace of the president and his dear wife who promptly rewarded him with a “well deserved” promotion. His legacies include the return of hitherto outlawed warlords who have re-established their camps and are operating visibly. Before he was redeployed, his atrocities reached its apogee with the attempted murder of Senator Magnus Abe when police men on his orders attacked Save Rivers Movement members at College of Arts and Science premises in Rumuola, Port Harcourt.
Violence against APC members
The following are but a few of the known cases of death and grievous bodily injuries caused our members by the PDP through its members and hirelings.
Perhaps, the most brazen of all attacks took place in the early morning of the flag-off of the Presidential Campaign of the APC in Port Harcourt. Two different sets of gun men attacked buses conveying the party supporters from different parts of the state to Port Harcourt. The buses located several hundred kilometers from each other were riddled with bullets. A day after the attack, the police naively dismissed the attacks as incidents of armed robbery. Whilst it must be noted that nothing was stolen from the victims, one must ask the police why the “robbers” isolated APC members on the same day, at about the same time and in two different locations in the state?
Many APC supporters on their way to the official flag-off of Gen. Muhammadu Buhari’s presidential campaign were attacked by gun men near Harry’s Town in Degema and Sakpenwa in Tai. The cowards were not bold enough to do it without hiding under face masks. They left many unconscious and in their pool of blood and fled into anonymity to spend the filthy money from their cowardly masters.
After this, the APC secretariat in Okrika, the home of Madam Patience Jonathan was destroyed by a bomb explosion. Whilst no life was lost, party members have been terrorized and the message is clear that the PDP and its dangerously armed terrorist gangs will not allow the APC to lawfully contest for the votes in Okrika Local Government Area.
Chief Orerehim was on the 10th of January beaten alongside others when they were having a caucus meeting at Oro-owo, Rumueme, Ward 10, Obio-Akpor LGA by thugs. He was seriously beaten and injured. He reported the matter to Rukpakani Police Station, Ada George Road. But, no arrest, invitation or investigation was made by the police.
On January 22 in Ogu/Bolo Local Government Area, some group of PDP thugs destroyed APC billboards/banners and injured one Mr. Precious Tende. That was the third time Evans Bipi and his cohorts had willfully destroyed APC banners/billboards in Ogu, headquarters of the Local Government Area. the Ogu Council of Chiefs, the police at Ogu, the Department of State Security (DSS) and the Joint Task Force Unit are all aware of it.
The following day, some PDP thugs numbering about 24 attacked the private residence of Barr. Cyprian Chukwu, a member of the APC in Ward 9, destroying valuable properties. He was lucky not to be at home when they came. They decapitated a young man in the premises and he is lying critically ill in the hospital with machete wounds on both arms.
In the early hours of January 24, thugs on the orders of Mrs. Patience Jonathan, PDP attacked the National field in Okrika which was to be the venue of an APC rally scheduled for that day with guns and explosive devices and destroyed a musical/public address system, canopies, podium and chairs. Thereafter, they attacked the residence of APC Councilors and members in Okrika Local Government Area. The police are yet to make any arrests.
Aiding and abetting by police
Most of these heinous crimes have been aided and abetted by the police. In some cases, they simply looked the other way whilst the crimes were committed. In other instances, they arrested the APC complainants or members of supporters on phantom charges just to neutralize the political influence of the APC in the area. Below are some of the flagrant cases of police harassment, intimidation, unlawful arrests and detention against members and supporters of APC in Rivers State.
Victimisation, arrest and detention
In Omuma Local Government Area, Hon. Emeka Wogu, a former member of the Rivers State House of Assembly, a former Commissioner and currently Chairman, Caretaker Committee, Omuma Local Government Council was arrested and accused of shooting at Mr. President’s billboard. Meanwhile, on the fateful day (August 25, 2014), he was at a Joint Allocation Committee meeting in Port Harcourt and was nowhere near the scene of the incident at Omuma Local Government Area. He arrested on August 27, 2014 by over 60 armed policemen in a commando style, handcuffed in the presence of his children and detained for two days. He was subsequently released without any charge.
In Ikwerre Local Government Area, Godwin Wojinda was arrested by the SARS squad of the police for stopping one Isi from running away with permanent voters cards (PVCs) belonging to ward 3, Omagwe, Ikwerre Local Government Area. He is still in police detention even when the culprit returned the hijacked material to the INEC Local Government Area Electoral Officer. He was not arrested; rather it was the complainant that was clamped into detention by the police.
Anxiety over polls
As the general elections approach, the scale, magnitude and intensity of the orchestrated violence against members of the APC has been assuming a frightful dimension, necessitating that we cry out to Nigerians and the international community. Our plight is akin to that of a people in a militarily conquered and occupied territory. PDP thugs and hirelings practically commit murders under the watchful and protective eyes of the police without as much as a slap on the wrist. The objective is obviously to antagonize and intimidate our supporters into believing that it is unsafe for them to come out and vote, thus effectively disenfranchising them.
We make this distress call to all men, women, organizations, nations and people who cherish democracy to intervene before it is too late. It is unimaginable that a president, who is from the Niger Delta region and who assumed office on the wings of agitations for equity and justice, would permit unprovoked and premeditated violent attacks on the same people he hopes to ride on their primordial sentiments to secure his second term. The president’s cavalier attitude to the escalating violence in the state borders on criminal negligence because he knows or ought to know (or in the least remember) the level of arms in circulation and the historical volatility of the state (and region).
We call on Amnesty International, the International Red Cross, the relevant organs of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the African Union (AU) and the United Nations (UN) to immediately commence independent inquiries into the gruesome attacks and killings in Rivers State. We call on these and other humanitarian and democratic organizations and institutions to set high-powered election monitoring networks, teams and processes to monitor the election in Rivers State to avert unnecessary bloodbath, which may cripple our already weakened economy. An acceptable electoral outcome is possible in Rivers State, but only if the elections are truly free and fair. There cannot be free and fair election, if the spate of violence, high handedness, intimidation and terror is not halted. We pledge to remain law abiding but we shall defend ourselves, our people and their votes by all lawful means.
