The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State has raised the alarm that Governor Nyesom Wike has confirmed being in possession of details of their petitions at the election tribunal.
Wike granted a televised chat Tuesday, April 11, 2023, where he allegedly waved a flash drive, saying it contained everything the APC was going to submit at the tribunal.
In a statement signed by Darlington Nwauju, publicity secretary of the APC, the party said Wike has confirmed that he, INEC and the Nigeria Police arrested the three APC lawyers ostensibly to obtain their party’s particulars of evidence of the electoral ‘heist’ that took place in Rivers State through alleged coercion.
The party stated thus: “By his own admittance, he connived with the operatives of the Nigeria Police to steal APC documents.
“In the annals of Nigerian political history, what Wike did by brandishing a flash drive purportedly containing details of APC legal briefs is same thing that took place in the Watergate scandal in the United States in 1972. By this very public confession of Governor Wike, it is very clear that the laptops and other evidences critical to the APC litigation at the Election Petitions Tribunal were hacked into in order to steal information. This, to our mind, should be of serious concern to Nigerians, especially to the Body of Benchers and lawyers in Nigeria.
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The APC said they now know why the three APC lawyers arrested on April 1st 2023 were first taken to the C4i Surveillance Intelligence Unit at Hypercity (a facility that is linked to the governor).
“After all, the Police at the State Criminal Investigations Department (SCID) and INEC staff from the ICT department confirmed that there was nothing incriminating or untoward about the documents found on these lawyers.”
The statement said Tuesday’s media chat has also confirmed APC fears that Gov Wike actually positioned the PDP thugs at INEC office and has been working in cahoots with them which led to the attack on their governorship candidate, Tonye Cole, on Monday 3rd April 2023 and the subsequent brazen attack on the APC state secretariat at Woji Road GRA same day.
“We are fully aware that the so-called protesters stationed at the INEC PH office are not there to prevent the smuggling in of results that were written anywhere as the governor claimed in his media chat; we are rather aware that the protesters are there to give shield to the INEC officials who are still busy writing results to match the figures that were ridiculously announced in favour of the PDP on the 18th of March 2023.
“We have also been informed that the venue of the election petition tribunal (EPT) shall be given the INEC treatment and then, top APC leaders in the state have also been marked for brutal attacks in order to ensure that the party’s quest to recover its mandate through the courts does not see the light of day.
“We are mortified at the intimidation of one Kayode Okikiolu of Channels TV, one of the anchors of the day’s media chat who asked very salient questions about the attack on our party secretariat. Let the people of Nigeria judge the manner of democracy Rivers State is currently witnessing!”
