ELECTORAL VIOLENCE: RIVERS APC COMMITTEE INDICTS PDP, LISTS 150 SINS FOR SUBMISSION TO UN, OTHERS •Says Okrika attack aimed to eliminate Dakuku Peterside

Nwaorgu Faustinus

The committee set up by the Rivers State Chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to investigate increasing cases of electoral violence in the State has indicted the rival Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Submitting the committee’s report to Rivers State APC Chairman, Dr. Davies Ibiamu Ikanya, on Monday at the party’s State Secretariat in Port Harcourt, committee Chairman, Prince Peter Odika, said the committee was able to list 150 sins committed against APC by PDP leadership and members in the course of the ongoing campaign for the 2015 elections.

“These sins revolve around attacks against APC faithful, billboards, and LG Secretariat by the misguided PDP elements in Rivers State ahead of the March/April 2015 general elections,” Prince Odika, who is the Rivers State APC Deputy Chairman, said. He pleaded that the report should be treated with the urgency it deserves before PDP engulfs the State into crisis that will not only send more APC members and other innocent persons to their earlier graves but also truncate the country’s nascent democracy.

Prince Odika disclosed that at the top of the list is the violent disruption of APC’s campaign rally in Okrika last Wednesday, which culminated in the death of a policeman. He alleged that the attack was principally targeted to eliminate the party’s gubernatorial candidate, Dr. Dakuku Peterside. “If they had succeeded, these enemies of our democracy would have engulfed the State in an unprecedented crisis the end of which no one could have predicted,” he said.

Receiving the report, Dr. Ikanya congratulated Prince Odika and his committee for a job well done. He assured them that the aim of setting up the committee would be actualised as the report would be sent to the United Nations, Amnesty International, ECOWAS and other major international bodies without delay.

“I commend the Inspector General of Police, Alh. Suleiman Abba, for directing that the Okrika attempt on our lives should be investigated. We wish that those behind this devilish attack are promptly arrested; if not our lives will not be safe anymore,” Ikanya said.

Looking ahead to the elections, the party chairman said: “To the people of Rivers State, the choice of stopping further promotion of violence lies in their hands by ensuring that all the candidates fielded by PDP in Rivers State are voted against to punish them for making our State a mockery before the international community. The choice before them is to choose between darkness and light, devil and God, between occultic forces and Christianity, between democracy and anti-democracy forces. The choice is ours to make.”

Ikanya appealed to the international community to come to the party’s aid, saying: “We can no longer fold our arms and watch while we are being viciously attacked and slaughtered by people whose mission and vision in politics is to spread violence as their own way of grabbing power, having seen that they have been overwhelmingly rejected by the electorate. What makes the situation more pathetic is that security agencies in Rivers State, including the police and the Department of State Security (DSS), have failed to make any arrest or call the PDP leadership to order simply because they are controlled by the PDP-led Federal Government, which is desperate to take over Rivers State at all cost.”

The fact-finding committee inaugurated on 19th January, 2015 had Prince Peter Odika the Deputy Chairman of Rivers APC as Chairman, Barr. Sogbeye C. Eli, the Rivers State APC Youth Leader, as Secretary. Other members were Chief Emeka Bekee, Secretary of Rivers State APC; Evangelist (Mrs.) Carol Nagbo, Women Leader; Chief Eze C. Eze; Hon. Israel Asiamaka, Okrika Chairman of APC; Chief Victor Ere, Andoni APC Chairman; Hon. Ojukaya Flag-Amachree, former Asaro-Toru Local Government Chairman; Hon. Awongo Ikalama, Chief of Staff to the Speaker of Rivers State House of Assembly; and Chief (Barr.) Obinna JK Chukwu.