Six Days To Rivers Rerun Election: Uneasy Calm As PDP, APC Trade Claims Over Rigging

Governor Nyesom Wike has suddenly developed penchant for wearing dark goggles to campaign rallies of his Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, ahead of the December 10 rerun elections in Rivers State. Not many around the governor could explain this sudden love for the dark glasses.
But it is clear the governor has no ‘apollo’, a seasonal eye infection that comes with harmattan. But the question of whether the governor will drop the goggles after the elections or not is an issue for another day. Meantime, the atmosphere is already charged in the state with many saying that the two main contenders in the polls are Wike and his predecessor who is now Minister of Transportation, Mr Rotimi Amaechi. The elections means much to the governor because he needs victory to have a firmer grip of the state House of Assembly and also be able to air his views and promote his party positions through lawmakers from the state at the National Assembly. For Amaechi, he wants a win to make a strong statement before his All Progressive Congress, APC, particularly at the national level that he is not a noisy politician without capacity to deliver the party in Rivers.
How the elections go on Saturday will determine finally if the state is truly PDP or if there is hope for the APC to make incursions into the state in the 2019 general elections.
The two top contending political parties, the PDP and APC, have been engaged in mudslinging, wild accusations and allegations around issues of plot to rig the elections. Wike fired the first shot when he accused the police and the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC of conniving with the APC to rig the elections.
He said the electoral body had handed Amaechi result sheets of the exercise at a secret meeting in Abuja, a statement Amaechi and INEC flatly denied. But the governor insisted there was alleged plot to rig the elections. According to him, part of the rigging plan by the police allegedly include allocation of more of its men to leaders of the APC to intimidate the electorate on the election day.
He spoke in Omoku, headquarters of Ogba Egbema Ndoni local government area while flagging-off the rehabilitation of the General Hospital in the area, charging the electorate to resist every form of intimidation on election day. Chairman of the PDP in Rivers, Mr Felix Obuah, also in a statement, claimed to have uncovered a plot by the police to arrest him ahead of the elections over trump up charges. Meantime, when contacted, the state Police Commissioner, Mr Francis Odesanya, dismissed the allegations levelled against his command as untrue, stressing that his men will conduct themselves professionally during the exercise in all parts of Rivers.
He also said it was not true that the police had sealed a deal to assist any of the political parties to rig the elections. Separately, the APC accused Wike of blackmailing various institutions ahead of the elections with an intention to divert attention from APC rigging plans. Publicity Secretary of the party, Mr Chris Finebone, said the governor had used police, in the past, to rig elections, stressing that this time there would be no room for such. “With less than two weeks to the legislative rerun elections in Rivers State, Gov. Nyesom Wike appears to have thrown all caution to the wind as he goes berserk and launches a campaign of blackmail on everyone, especially the APC, INEC and the Nigeria Police”, Finebone said.
Separately, a former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Austin Opara, has allayed fears over the rerun elections, saying the electorate will overwhelmingly vote the PDP to reward Wike for his infrastructural and human resources development initiatives in the state. Besides, he said Wike, a former ALGON Chairman, DG of Amaechi Campaign Organisation and Minister of State (Education), is a master planner and strategist with enormous grassroots appeal who knows how to win elections in Rivers because he understands the political temperament of the people.
According to him, Wike’s giant development strides have not only given the state a new lease of life, but also restored the confidence of the long-suffering people of the oil-rich state in government. His performance as governor and popularity among electorate in the state would clinch all the legislative seats to be contested in the forthcoming rerun, he said. “Not only has Wike fulfilled his electoral promises to the people, as at today, PDP occupies the 23 councils, all the 25 declared House of Assembly and three declared House of Representatives seats. With the above record, you would agree that no force on earth could truncate PDP’s victory. Even the opposition knows it, hence they want to scuttle the election,” Opara said.
The former Deputy Speaker, who spoke in Port Harcourt when members of the Coalition of Rivers Patriots paid him a courtesy visit, advised the All Progressives Congress (APC) to forget the rerun elections. “Rivers people are not fools. They know who their friends are.
They have never had it this good. The dividends of democracy that they could not get under eight years of Rotimi Amaechi have come to them under two years of Wike’s administration. Our people are not ingrates, they do not forget so easily. They have assured us that come December 10, they would troop out and vote the PDP all the way. No level of intimidation by the APC-led Federal Government can sway the people as they have vowed to give maximum support to the governor as he leads the PDP to victory.
Wike has done enough to win the hearts and confidence of the Rivers People,” he declared. He commended the governor for embarking on the construction of several road networks in Etche, Okrika, Andoni, Ikwerre, Emohua, describing Governor Wike’s strides as uncommon and people-oriented, culminating in the relative security of lives and properties in the state. Meanwhile, the Rivers State Elders Consultative Council has described the amnesty programme embarked upon by the Rivers government as fruitful and timely.

Digestng