Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State has accused the University of Port Harcourt lecturers of plotting to rig the rerun elections in collaboration with the All Progressives Congress, APC.
Governor Wike alleged that he was aware of what he described as an APC induced list of returning officers, which he said was intended to be used in rigging the forthcoming re-run legislative elections in the state.
Governor Wike made the allegation when he received the management team of the University of Port Harcourt led by the Vice Chancellor, Professor Ndowa Lale at the Government House in Port Harcourt.
According to Governor Wike, the purported list was drawn up in connivance with some APC chieftains from Rivers State and a sister state in the South-South geo-political zone.
Wike said the Rivers State Government had already notified the Independent National Electoral Commission of the alleged fraudulent plot through a letter addressed to the National Chairman of the electoral body.
He said the Vice Chancellor of the University of Port Harcourt may have signed the allegedly induced list unknowingly.
He further warned that University lecturers who allowed themselves to be used by the APC chieftains would face the wrath of Rivers people.
“The University of Port Harcourt is in Rivers State and you know what that means. Some Lecturers will be used during the re-run elections. For us, we don’t want anybody to rig elections for us. Of course you know the consequences. If the Lecturer is working for the interest of a political party, whatever happens to him is not my business,” Wike said.
Governor Wike said the people of Rivers State were vigilant, warning that nobody would be allowed to subvert the democratic process.
In the meantime, the All Progressive Congress in Rivers State has raised alarm over an alleged plot to use the state judiciary to stop its candidates from contesting the re-run elections on 19th Match.
Briefing newsmen at the APC Secretariat in Port Harcourt, the State Chairman of the party, Chief Davies Ikanya said three APC candidates were currently facing such suits before the State High Court.
Chief Ikanya said the party believed that the move might be responsible for the frequent boast by the PDP that if elections were conducted one hundred times its candidates would win.
However, the Rivers APC Chairman warned that his party would resist every attempt by the PDP-controlled State Government to use the judiciary against its candidates.
Ikanya said, “They have boasted that they will win elections if conducted 300 times but we are not bothered. We have been campaigning because we want a free and fair election. But that is not what they want. We know their plans.
“They have been carrying tax payers money shopping for a judge that will do the hatchet job, an ethically weak Judge that will give them an injunction to stop our candidates from contesting the rerun elections.
“Information available to us is that 3 Judges have refused their offer already.”
He also expressed concern that several lawsuits filed by the state government had been assigned to a particular judge.
The APC Chairman said the party suspected that the intention of the government was to obtain blanket injunctions restraining security agencies from arresting PDP members who were accused of infractions.
The Chairman of the APC also expressed worry over the issue of insecurity and killing of members of the party in some parts of the state.
Chief Ikanya laid emphasis on recent killings in Ogba-Egbema-Ndoni, Abua-Odual, Ahoada East, Andoni, Khana and Ikwerre Local Government areas.
According to him, comments by Governor Wike had set the stage for the recent eruption of violence in Yeghe community and Bori town in the Ogoni area of Rivers State.
Ikeanya commended the security agencies for their intervention and called on Nigerians to rise up in defence of democracy in Rivers State.
The APC leadership in Rivers State also criticized plans for a memorial procession in Ogoni in honour of victims of the violence of last week.
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