•Says Wike and PDP’s celebration premature
The Rivers State Chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has predicted that the State Governor, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, will be eventually vindicated in his efforts as the State APC Leader to upturn the declaration of Chief Nyesome Wike of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as winner of the April 11 gubernatorial election in the state. “We fully align ourselves with Governor Amaechi’s position that no election took place in Rivers State on April 11 and we are with him all the way in his efforts to ensure that justice is done to APC, to our gubernatorial candidate, Dr. Dakuku Peterside, and to the good people of the State who freely gave their mandate to our great party. We have no doubts at all in our minds that Governor Amaechi and our great party shall be vindicated at the end of the electoral process, which terminates at the Election Tribunal,” Rivers APC Chairman, Dr. Davies Ibiamu Ikanya, said.
Ikanya in a statement issued Tuesday in Port Harcourt faulted the declaration of Wike and PDP’s State Assembly candidates as winners by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), vowing that the injustice cannot be allowed to stand. “It is clearly too early for Wike and the PDP to start any form of celebration because the APC Leader in Rivers State in the person of Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi has an uncanny gift to turn the table when it seems highly impossible to do so. Governor Amaechi’s reputation as regards his political struggles and the usual outcome after he must have been written off by the uninformed is instructive. His penchant to snatch victory from the jaws of seeming defeat after travelling the hard road is legendary. I am confident that it will take only few weeks for both Chief Wike and his PDP followers to face the reality that you cannot cover the sun with a finger,” Ikanya said.
He urged APC members and supporters not to lose hope as there is more than enough evidence to prove that there was no election in Rivers State on April 11. “Most observers, including Prof. Wole Soyinka, Ambassador Endwhistle and International Observers, have since confirmed that that there was no election in Rivers State to warrant a winner being declared; rather, what happened was the hounding and murder of APC members by the PDP leadership, coup against democracy, ballot-snatching and scandalous thumb-printing which are still ongoing after two weeks of the purported election of April 11th,. Rivers APC has gone to the Election Tribunal to seek redress over the obvious robbery of its mandate. Our teeming members and supporters should be rest assured of victory in view of the enormous facts at APC’s disposal and the calibre of the legal team assembled by the party to fight this monumental injustice,” Ikanya added.