Rivers State chapter of All Progressives Congress, APC, said it has taken notice of the pronouncement by the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike that he has set up a Judicial Commission of Inquiry to investigate the violence and killings that occurred during the March 19, rerun legislative elections in the state.
The APC in statement signed by its Spokesperson, Senibo Chris Finebone condemned the Gov’s action, describing it as “self-serving and a mere smokescreen” by the governor to rubbish his political opponents and divert attention from the violence and deaths he planted, nurtured and carried out during the Rivers State rerun elections.
The APC recalled that following the killings associated with the 2015 electoral violence in Rivers State in 2015, the then governor of Rivers State, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi set up the Prof Chidi Odinkalu Commission to unravel the issues behind the killings. Nyesom Wike and the PDP swiftly filed suit No. FHC/PHC/256/2015 at a Port Harcourt against the sitting of that Commission, adding that one of the arguments by the PDP and Nyesom Wike was that the former governor was an interested party in what happened during the elections and therefore should not have set up the panel.
This time, according to the APC, “Gov. Nyesom Wike is on record for having threatened violence and death to stakeholders long before and even during the rerun elections. There is no doubt that the several threats Nyseom Wike issued to his supporters and associates gave rise to the widespread and wanton killings by the PDP and their acolytes. Therefore, where lies the enabling neutrality and moral high ground for Gov. Nyesom Wike to set up a commission of inquiry to investigate a matter in which he is the mastermind-in-chief?”
The APC informed Gov. Nyesom Wike to consider the matter of the commission a total waste of time and resources, and dead on arrival. “Taking a look at the members of the commission, the APC would like to advise Gov. Wike to look for a more honest means of compensating his supporters and their relations rather than sending them on a journey to nowhere or one that will suffer a still-birth” the party declared.
