Nigeria Decides: APC condemns violence in Rivers, Gombe

The All Progressives Congress (APC), on Saturday condemned what it called violence perpetrated against its members in Gombe and Rivers State during Saturday’s elections, saying violence has no place in any democracy.

In a statement issued in Lagos by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party in particular condemned the collusion between INEC and the PDP, aided by the security in Rivers, saying that what transpired in the state is nothing but a travesty of elections.

”INEC practically handed over the elections to the PDP in Rivers, depriving APC strongholds of men and material. In Okrika, materials arrived and were taken to the home of the State Secretary for PDP Ibibia Walter, while all units in Ahoada East and Omuma LGAs do not have result sheets. To worsen matters, PDP thugs unleashed mayhem on APC voters, killing one member in Tai Local Government and harassing a serving Commissioner.

”Simply put, there was an orchestrated, massive disenfranchisement in APC strongholds,” it said.

APC also condemned the killing of eight of the party’s members, one of them a serving member of the House of Assembly, in Gombe State on Saturday, saying it was aimed at intimidating its members and preventing them from coming out to vote.

The party also said there was a plan to rob former Governor Danjuma Gombe of victory in his senatorial district, as the military commander and the police commissioner in the state were trying to orchestrate a crisis so they could arrest the former Governor and put him away.

It, therefore, called for an end to the violence, harassment and intimidation of its members in the state.