Former Chairman of the National Caretaker Committee Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Ahmed Makarfi has condemned the disruption of Saturday’s bye-election in Rivers State for Port Harcourt Constituency III State Assembly seat.
INEC had on Saturday suspended the election, citing “widespread violence”.
Reacting, Makarfi disclosed that a top government official was responsible for security threats in the state.
The presidential aspirant speaking with newsmen on Sunday called on President Muhammadu Buhari to bring the culprit to book, stressing that the Government knows who was responsible for the carnage in the state and must be called to order.
“I have said it when I went to commission a project in Rivers that, one Governor that has been under the continuous siege, intimidation and harassment by the Federal Government is Governor Wike of Rivers State. It is uncalled for and this must stop.
“The Saturday election in Taraba went fine, but in Rivers, look at the disruption with the connivance of the security agencies involved. And we all know who in the Federal Government is responsible for this crisis in Rivers State.
“I watched a video of the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in charge of Rivers State, where he said that the security agents responsible for the crisis were not those engaged to secure the election process.
“If it is true according to the REC that certain individuals were going around polling units with platoons of security men unchallenged, then the President should do something because that is injurious to our democracy.
“Nobody should be beyond being called to order. The person in the Federal Government that is consistently causing security breaches and the crisis in Rivers state must be called to order. The government knows him, we all know him.
“President holds it a responsibility to this nation, that individual should be called to order, otherwise, the havoc they can cause to our democracy and to our country will be grievous.
“INEC did the right thing by suspending the election. But beyond that, correction should be done, the security agencies must not allow themselves to be used by an interested party in the election to hijack the political process, whether in Rivers State or any part of this country. But the siege on the people and government of Rivers State must stop,” Makarfi said.
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