The All Progressives Congress (APC) has said that those who are after Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers are now more desperate to unseat him hence, their last option of abduction.
In a statement on Sunday, APC Interim National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed, condemned in strong terms, the reported plot to abduct, blackmail and compel Governor Amaechi to resign from office.
He said the alarm raised by the Rivers Peoples Forum on the abduction plot should not be handled with levity, recalling the Anambra experience where a sitting democratically-elected Governor Chris Ngige was abducted.
Mohammed stated “Anyone who thinks this alarm by the Rivers Peoples Forum is outlandish should remember what happened to then Anambra State Governor Chris Ngige, who was abducted and rough handled in 2003 in what is undoubtedly the most egregious violation of democratic institutions in our country’s history.
“The instigators and perpetrators of the crisis in Rivers are keenly aware that they are running out of options.
“Their impeachment plan has been foiled by the takeover of the legislative functions of the Rivers State House of Assembly’s functions by the National Assembly, while their plan to declare a state of emergency in the state has also failed, against the lack of support for such act by the National Assembly.
“This is the reason for this last desperate act by an increasingly-desperate Presidency, which may not exclude a final solution.
“We are therefore, for the umpteenth time, calling on civil society and human rights organizations, opinion leaders and indeed all lovers of democracy and believers in constitutional rule to intervene to stop the runaway culture of impunity in Rivers State.”
The opposition party also insisted that the drama in Rivers state is a grand plot to test run 2015 election, adding “As we have said before, the crisis in Rivers is being deliberately orchestrated to test the waters ahead of the 2015 elections, with the belief that if the perpetrators get away with the massive impunity in the state, it can then be extended to other states before 2015 to ensure that the polls will be everything but free, fair and transparent, and also to satisfy the yearnings of a President who is obsessed with winning re-election.
“The daylight rape of democracy in Delta State on October 12th by those who prevented elections from holding, only to announce concocted results, is also part of this plot. The new strategy is to use security agencies, especially the police and the military, to undermine democracy. We have not seen the last of these dangerous games, hence the need for all to be vigilant.”
