Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State has been accused of working with staff of the United Kingdom High Commission to black the Nigerian military over the outcome of the just-concluded elections in the state.
Coalition for Change and Transparency (CCT) made the allegation on Monday in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital.
CCT observed that during the state elections, fake stories were deployed as propaganda tools against the military by some political players in the state.
Danesi Momoh, President of the coalition, at the press briefing, alleged that some persons were sponsored by Nyesom Wike to run the campaign.
The group called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to investigate the allegation, while advising those involved to cooperate with any investigation by a Nigerian agency into this sordid episode.
Full text of his speech below.
The Governorship and State Assembly elections held on Saturday March 9. 2019 with incidents of violence reported in some parts of the country. International and domestic Election Observation Missions reported that these disruptive acts of violence were committed across board by the major political parties taking part in the process.
Our analysis showed that these incidents would have gone out of hand but for the intervention of the military that was deployed for the purpose of preventing violent electoral crimes like ballot snatching and vote disruption. Both in the course of the Presidential/National Assembly and the Governorship/ State Assembly elections, the military received commendations from groups that were able to evaluate its role without the bias of pre-conceived stereotypes.
During the state elections, fake news was deployed as propaganda weapon against the military by those who felt they were unable to rig or manipulate the elections because of the critical role the military was playing.
Interestingly, such fake news were targeted at areas were the military had successfully prevented violence from spiraling out of control.
Some persons were sponsored by Nyesom Wike to run the campaign against the military.
The Nigerian military even had to alert members of the public to the worrisome situation of unscrupulous politicians giving military uniforms to armed thugs. The implication of this is that people are likely to blame the military for crimes committed by these thugs in uniform without realizing that they are not military personnel. Stakeholders and friends of Nigeria that want to make sincere interventions in the country’s electoral process will factor in the activities of thugs like these.
CCT will watch closely to see the remedial steps taken by the United Kingdom to right its wrong against Nigerians and will announce additional steps it will take should the development not be satisfactory.
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