Residents of the 23 local government areas in Rivers State are gripped by fear of another round of violence during today’s governorship and House of Assembly elections. And the residents, particularly those at the ‘war zones’ during the February 23 presidential and National Assembly elections, have every reason to panic, considering the avoidable loss of lives and property they had experienced in previous elections.
Addressing reporters in Abuja on March 5, the Minister of Transportation and chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Rt. Hon. Rotimi Amaechi, described as deadly the ambition of his former Chief of Staff and now Rivers State governor, Nyesom Wike of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), to continue in office.
Amaechi, a former governor of Rivers State and leader of APC in the state and the Southsouth zone, as well as the Director-General of Buhari/Osinbajo Re-election Campaign Organisation, believes that his successor (Wike) is desperate to remain in office at all costs.
Wike, an ex-Minister of State for Education, however, alleged that his former benefactor (Amaechi), who recommended him in 2011 to the then President Goodluck Jonathan for ministerial appointment, should be blamed for the death and injury of many innocent persons during the February 23 presidential and National Assembly elections in the state, no matter the amount of crocodile tears he sheds, describing his former boss as a purveyor of violence.
On March 6, Amaechi, while addressing members of APC and supporters of the party in Eleme, Eleme Local Government Area (LGA), asked them and other people in the state to massively vote for the governorship candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC), Awara Biokpomabo, an engineer and a riverine man from Kula-Kalabari in Akuku-Toru LGA of the state, in today’s governorship election.
The transportation minister noted that although the main opposition APC in Rivers was still in court over the non-inclusion of the party’s governorship standard bearer, Pastor Tonye Cole, an indigene of Abonnema-Kalabari in Akuku-Toru LGA, on the ballot, he stressed that it was pertinent to adopt the candidate of AAC, considering the closeness of the governorship and House of Assembly elections.
He said: “In the morning of March 6, the leadership of the party met and agreed that we would work with a party called African Action Congress while we are still in court to reclaim our mandate.
“So, on Saturday (today), we will vote for AAC. You must go home and vote for AAC. There should be no excuse not to vote, because there will be security for everybody. You must prepare and make sure you win the governorship election.”
Amaechi also assured that the moment the governorship election was won by AAC’s candidate today and he is inaugurated on May 29, 2019, by June this year, there would be local government chairmanship and councillorship elections.
Wike, however, stated that he and other members of PDP in Rivers State were not worried over APC members’ backing the governorship candidate of AAC, boasting that he would record a landslide victory in view of his developmental projects and his empowerment of the people in the 23 LGAs of the state.
Echoes of violence
Trouble had started in the state two days to the February 23 presidential and National Assembly elections, when the governor raised the alarm that the General Officer Commanding (GOC) 6 Division, Nigerian Army, Port Harcourt, Maj.-Gen. Jamil Sarham, was planning to assassinate him and also help the leaders of APC in the state to rig the polls.
The GOC, however, described Wike, a lawyer, as a liar and blackmailer, insisting that the allegations were senseless and childish.
On February 23, a chieftain of APC, Chief Mowan Etete, a two-term Chairman of Andoni LGA, the local government area of the National Chairman of PDP, Prince Uche Secondus, was shot dead by political thugs around 9 a.m. in his house in Asarama, Andoni LGA, along with his elder brother. Etete, also a former Vice-Chairman of PDP in Rivers State and former Special Adviser to Wike on Political Matters, defected to the APC last October. The APC chieftain and his elder brother were killed after the gunmen scaled the fence of Etete’s compound and rained bullets on them at close range while they were holding a meeting with some people, some of whom were also injured. The invaders escaped without taking any item from the house. Etete had narrowly escaped assassination a few hours before the February 16 presidential and National Assembly elections, which were postponed till February 23.
The Public Relations Officer (PRO), Rivers State Police Command, Nnamdi Omoni, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), said the personnel of the command were on the trail of the killers of Etete and his elder brother, expressing optimism that they would soon be arrested and prosecuted to serve as deterrence to other criminals.
The presidential and National Assembly elections in Rivers State were also marred by sporadic gunshots across the 23 LGAs in the state. There were heavy gunshots in Ubima, Ikwerre LGA, the hometown of Amaechi and another former Rivers governor, Sir Celestine Omehia (of PDP), with voters, residents, journalists and other people scampering to safety. Okrika, the headquarters of Okrika LGA, the hometown of a former First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, and Bonny Island also witnessed gunshots, making it impossible for the Electoral Officer in Bonny LGA, Eze Ukachukwu, to distribute voting materials.
There were non-stop gunshots in Abonnema-Kalabari, the headquarters of Akuku-Toru LGA of Rivers State, the hometown of governorship candidate of APC, Pastor Tonye Cole, and his counterpart in Accord Party, Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs. The heavy shootings in Abonnema started in the night of February 22 and continued through out February 23, with the intention of scaring away the electorate and personnel of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
An ally of Wike, Emma Okah, a lawyer, who is the Director of Information and Communications of Rivers PDP Campaign Council and doubles as the state’s Commissioner for Information and Communications, claimed that 15 PDP members were shot dead by soldiers in Abonnema.
INEC later decided to reschedule the Akuku-Toru and Bonny LGAs’ elections till March 9.
While reacting to the violence in Abonnema, the Acting Director, Army Public Relations, Col. Sagir Musa, disclosed that gallant troops of the Nigerian Army fought their way through the siege and, in the process, killed six of the assailants but lost a Lieutenant in the encounter.
Musa said: “Information reaching the headquarters of the Nigerian Army revealed that troops of 6 Division on a legitimate duty of protecting lives and property of law-abiding citizens and ensuring a conducive environment for peaceful conduct of 2019 general elections in Abonnema, Akuku-Toru LGA, Rivers State, were attacked by some hoodlums.
“The pre-planned attack occurred between Charles and Bob-Manuel’s compounds in Abonnema town at about 1 pm on 23rd February, 2019.
“The attackers barricaded a major road into the town and laid an ambush in the adjoining built- up areas, from where they opened fire on our unsuspecting troops when they attempted to remove the barricade. Preliminary investigation indicated that one Rowland Sekibo the Chairman Akuku-Toru LGA, Omodo the CSO Akuku-Toru LGA and Kenneth of Kula currently at large (all of PDP), were the masterminds of the unexpected/unprovoked attack.”
The army spokesman also stated that the perpetrators of the ambush would be made to face the full wrath of the law.
Responding at a news briefing in Government House, Port Harcourt, Wike accused Amaechi, the GOC 6 division and Commander of Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) in Rivers State, Akin Fakorede, an Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), of being responsible for the February 23 violence; an allegation they denied outright.
Wike said: “All our fears and concerns for the peaceful conduct of the general elections in Rivers State were completely vindicated as the army literarily took over the conduct of the general elections and aided armed thugs of the APC to prevent distribution of election materials, disrupt voting, snatch election materials and chase away PDP agents from collation centres across the state.
“In Abonnema, a criminal declared wanted by the state, christened Don Pedro, led a band of APC armed thugs to the Local Govern ment’s Registration Area Centre (RAC) to forcibly stop the distribution of election materials to the various wards and units of Akuku-Toru LGA.
“The people of the community (Abonnema) resisted and insisted on having the opportunity to exercise their rights to vote for the party and candidates of their choice.
“However, instead of disarming and arresting the APC armed thugs to prevent the general elections from being scuttled, the soldiers intervened on the side of APC militia, and in the ensuing confusion and confrontation, killed 15 innocent persons and wounded several others.
“The soldiers are ravaging the entire Abonnema community and killing young men found in their homes.”
On February 26, the GOC, 6 division, paraded Wike’s Commissioner for Urban Development and Physical Planning, Dr. Reason Onya, and the representative of Ahoada West constituency in Rivers House of Assembly, Nwanaka Okpokiri, also of PDP, for rigging February 23 elections in the state.
The Camp Commandant of Government House, Port Harcourt, Oyoku Ifelle, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP); Major Akpoge Peter Ubah of 6 Division, Nigerian Army, Port Harcourt and 31 others, including policemen, thugs and ad hoc staff of INEC, including two women, were also paraded on February 26.
The GOC disclosed that a lot of manoeuvres by political actors were witnessed in the division’s Area of Responsibility (AOR), covering Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Delta and Rivers states, during the February 23 polls.
Maj.-Gen. Sarham said: “Equally of grave concern is the daring attempt by the Governor of Rivers State to compromise security agencies, particularly troops of 6 Division, with hefty financial inducements to help him in his illegitimate act of thwarting a free and fair electoral process to his favour, while accusing the Nigerian Army and its command hierarchy of bias daily.
“Apparently, Governor Wike must have underestimated the Nigerian Army’s commitment to being professionally responsive in the discharge of our constitutional roles.
“The Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt.-Gen. Tukur Yusuf Buratai, has over time reiterated and demonstrated the Nigerian Army’s resolve to being apolitical, neutral and unbiased. He (COAS) has also left no one in doubt of our total and absolute loyalty to the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the President/Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (President Muhammadu Buhari).
“No amount of cheap blackmail and unsubstantiated allegations will make us bulge. While we do not intend to take issues with anyone, however, it has become expedient to bring to the notice of the general public the actual reasons behind Governor Wike’s attrition against the Nigerian Army and its leadership, with the hope that he will finally sheathe his sword and publicly apologise to the Nigerian Army, as we present the shocking discoveries.”
All the 35 suspects were handed over to the Deputy Commissioner in charge of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of Rivers Police Command, Ahmed Kontagora, who represented Rivers Commissioner of Police, Usman Belel.
Tales of electoral fraud
On March 1, at 6 Division, a youth corps member, Tuatimi James Powell, revealed how leaders of PDP in Rivers State sent thugs who forced him and 10 other colleagues (corps members) at gunpoint to Greenside Hotel in Bodo-Ogoni, Gokana LGA of Rivers to rig the February 23 presidential and National Assembly elections.
Powell, who was a Presiding Officer (PO) of INEC, said he and other youth corps members had horrifying experiences in the hands of the PDP thugs, who bundled all of them into a waiting bus amid sporadic gunshots and moved them to the hotel while still shooting.
The youth corps member revealed that on getting to the hotel, the PDP leaders and their thugs forced them, at gunpoint, to fill fictitious results on INEC’s result sheets forcibly taken from him and other corps members, while also forcing them to sign the documents.
Corroborating Powell, an Assistant Presiding Officer (APO) of INEC, Michael Kponeh, disclosed that the ad hoc staff and other officials of INEC were held hostage by the PDP thugs in Bodo-Ogoni in Gokana LGA and made to do their bidding at gunpoint.
The 11 corps members were paraded along with 42 other suspects, totalling 53, by the GOC 6 Division, who was represented by the Garrison Commander of 6 Division Garrison, Brig.-Gen. Adeola Kalejaiye, and assisted by 6 Division’s Deputy Director, Army Public Relations, Col. Aminu Iliyasu.
Maj.-Gen. Sarham said: “Items recovered from the hotel were 34 ballot boxes loaded with ballot papers, three card readers, ten bags containing electoral materials and a Toyota Hiace bus with registration number: Lagos: EQ 171 KRD.”
The GOC also disclosed that 13 political thugs were arrested in Harris Town, Degema LGA, Rivers State on February 21, ahead of February 23 elections.
Also paraded on March 1 was Gogo Meshack of Asarama in Andoni LGA of Rivers State, who was arrested with 142 Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) and other electoral materials by troops of 6 Division, Nigerian Army on February 24, on his way from Asarama to Port Harcourt.
All the 53 suspects were handed over to Victor Onyeugo, an Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Rivers Police Command, with Onyeugo assuring that personnel of Rivers State police command would ensure further investigation of the suspects and prosecution of the indicted ones.
On March 5, the GOC again paraded 14 more suspects who were arrested for violence in Akuku-Toru and Obio/Akpor LGAs during the February 23 presidential and National Assembly elections, with the suspects received by Onyeugo on behalf of the state’s police command. Exactly a week after the Lieutenant was killed in Abonnema, two more soldiers, who were part of the troops stationed to maintain peace in the Kalabari City (Abonnema) were gunned down by hoodlums at the Obonoma-Abonnema Junction, with the criminals carting away the soldiers’ rifles.
The Coordinator of APC’s Presidential Campaign Council in Rivers State, Pastor Tonye Cole, accused Wike of being hell-bent on clinging to power at any cost, even taking human lives. He also assured that the Federal Government would seek justice for the families of persons who were killed on February 23 across the 23 LGAs, no matter how long it would take.
Cole, who is also the Rivers governorship candidate of APC, at a news conference in Port Harcourt, expressed condolences to the families who lost loved ones in the Niger Delta state during the presidential and National Assembly polls.
He said: “Over the past few days, Rivers State has once again been in the headlines globally for all the wrong reasons. It has been my personal plea and mantra, as well as that of the APC that the violence meted out to our members and citizens of the state in 2015, and immediately thereafter, has no place in any modern society, especially one that desperately needs to grow economically and develop for the betterment of its people. We have called for peace and peaceful elections at every stage.
“I have been shocked and saddened by statements and comments attributed to Wike that Prof. Charles Dokubo-Quakers (Coordinator of Presidential Amnesty Programme/Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on Niger Delta Affairs), Prince Tonye Princewill (APC chieftain) and I are responsible for the carnage and deaths in Abonnema on February 23. These malicious and unfounded allegations are being investigated and our lawyers will advise on possible libel suits to take against those who have peddled these wicked falsehoods.
“For anyone willing to expose the truth, the task is relatively easy and the motive particularly clear. Nigerians in their vast numbers were shocked to learn of militant kingpins that were rewarded for their roles in the 2015 elections with positions in the Rivers State House of Assembly, Local Government Councils and State Government appointments by the Rivers State Government. This is common knowledge and the names of these individuals are known to many.
“In Akuku-Toru LGA in particular, Hon. Rowland Sekibo, currently at large, is the Chairman of the LGA, and under his watch, Abonnema was brazenly under the control of several deadly cult groups. Like in several LGAs across the state and operating under the cover of the Local Government Authority, militarised cult groups have held Akuku- The oil magnate (Lulu-Briggs), who until September 28, 2018, was a governorship aspirant on the platform of APC, also accused Rivers governor of using primitive tactics, especially by sponsoring Mr. Precious Baridoo, who is claiming to be Accord Party’s governorship candidate in the state, and trying to cause confusion in Accord Party by sponsoring litigation at Federal High Court, Port Harcourt, presided over by Justice Emmanuel Obile, as he earlier did in APC, where he sponsored many court cases against Cole.
Wike, through Rivers Commissioner for Information and Communications, Emma Okah, who doubles as the Director of Information and Communications of Rivers PDP Campaign Council, however, denied causing confusion in Accord Party, APC and other political parties, claiming that his “impressive” performance across Rivers’ 23 LGAs would earn him re-election.
The House of Representatives’ candidate of the APC for Okrika/Ogu-Bolo constituency of Rivers state, Mrs. Maureen Tamuno, assured that in spite of the challenges and court cases, members of the party in Rivers were preparing for the March 9 governorship and House of Assembly elections.
She hinted that ahead of March 9 polls, there would be the need for realignment, to be directed by the leader of APC in Rivers and Southsouth zone (Amaechi).
Tamuno, a former Chairman of Ogu/Bolo Local Government Council, stated these on March 3 at a thanksgiving service at St. Martin’s Anglican Church, Ogu, the headquarters of Ogu/Bolo LGA of Rivers, to appreciate God on the victory of President Buhari.
She said: “We did our best and our contributions brought about the victory for President Buhari. We are celebrating and rejoicing. We know that President Buhari will not forget the people of Okrika/Ogu-Bolo federal constituency who have stood strong for him, despite all the problems that we are facing.”
Tamuno assured that APC members in Rivers would exercise their franchise on March 9.
Rivers governor, however, asked APC’s leaders and members in Rivers to accept the reality that their party would still not be on the ballot for today’s elections in the state.
Wike said: “Truth be told, the Supreme Court has spoken. INEC has confirmed. It is the will of God and there is nothing anybody can do to return the APC to the ballot for the 2019 general elections in Rivers State.
“But this, I believe, is not the end of life for the APC in Rivers State. There is always another day and as political leaders, we must have the courage to accept the reality, know when to stop fighting for nothing and tell our followers the simple truth, even if it may sound bitter.
“I would therefore advice my brothers in the APC to endeavour to put their house in order, allow the prevailing peace to continue and prepare for 2023.”