The Chairman, Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Rivers State Chapter, Felix Obuah has expressed grave concern over latest moves by the All Progressives Congress, APC, candidate for the Rivers South-East Senatorial District re-run election, Mr. Magnus Abe, including his reported visit Friday to the Abuja Offices of the Amnesty and the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
He also recalled that few days ago, Mr. Abe and the State chairman of the APC, Mr. Davies Ikanga, also met with the INEC National Chairman, MahmoodYakubu, at the Commission’s headquarters in Abuja, amongst other visits and clandestine activities by chieftains and members of the APC, aimed at subverting the INEC election process and securing a compromised conduct of the exercise.
Obuah criticizes such moves, describing the APC activities as unprogressive and undemocratic, as it would amount to denying the people their fundamental right of choosing their popular and acceptable representatives as well as disallowing a free and fair electoral process in the State.
While calling on Mr. Abe and the APC chieftains to retrace their steps and come home to prepare for full participation in the planned election, the PDP chairman believes that the exercise would be an obvious opportunity for the parties and their candidates to test their popularity and acceptance in the State.
We have no doubt in our mind that the INEC will not allow desperate and unpopular politicians like Magnus Abe and Ikanya to destroy its reputation.
We also call on the International community, security agencies, INEC and other institutions not to yield to Mr. Abe and the APC call for the postponement of the Rivers legislative re-run polls, as there is no justification to further deny the people the opportunity to exercise their franchise, as their fundamental right.
In like manner,the PDP Chairman in Rivers State, Bro. Felix Obuahalso accused the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the State of another plot to ensure that the Re-run State and National Assemblies Election scheduled for Saturday, July 30, 2016, in 8 Local Government Areas of the State is postponed.
The party observes that the burning of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) office in Boriearly hours oftoday, Friday, is a pointer that APC is not ready for the Re-run polls.
The PDP condemns the action in strong terms, saying it is another deliberate action by the APC to create a state of insecurity not only in Khana Local Government Area and the Ogoni area but in Rivers State as a whole apparently to justify their demand for the postponement of the election, having realized that its candidates in the election from the area will not succeed in the poll.
The PDP Chairman wondered why the APC would push their desperation for power to such extent of setting fire on the INEC office without justification. “I wonder what the APC want to achieve by destroying the INEC office. They know that their candidates are not sellable, and therefore cannot win any free and fair elections in Rivers State”, Obuah declared.
Obuah said the security agencies and the public can now appreciate the recent statement by the APC Spokesman in Rivers, one Chris Fynebone, when he declaredthat the APC has‘some strategies’ahead of the forthcoming Rerun Election, adding “this wicked act of burning down the Bori INEC office is certainly one of the APC acclaimed strategies”.
The State PDP Chairman reiterated that no act of intimidation would cow the party, stating the readiness of the PDP to rout the APC in all fronts in the forthcoming Rerun Election.
The party appealed to security agencies to do all it can to fish out those behind the burning of the Bori INEC office, while further urging them to be alive to their responsibilities before, during and after the Re-run Election.
It would be recalled that Mr. Magnus Abe was on Friday, seen at the Amnesty Office in Abuja, where he disclosed that the July 30, 2016 rescheduled re-run election in Rivers State has been postponed by INEC.
