Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State has insisted on the immediate prosecution of the printer allegedly caught printing fake election results intended for the December 10, 2016 Rivers rerun election.
Addressing a press conference in Government House at noon on Sunday, 06 heavily attended by state government officials, party chieftains and those he described as stakeholders in the state, the governor demanded for the immediate arrest and prosecution of a top member of the opposition (APC) in the state, saying the man had been mentioned by the arrested suspect.
The police in the state is yet to issue any statement on the matter but the governor said the police boss told him he was under pressure not only to release the suspect but also not to arrest the political leader mentioned in the case.
Wike therefore accused the police of working in concert with the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to rig the upcoming rerun election. Wike buttressed his charge by the fact that while the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was yet to be given the identities of polling units where the rerun elections would be conducted, the APC was so aware that they knew which units to print.
The state government had issued a statement late Saturday, (Nov 5) saying it had caught one Atonye Peters of number 12 Isiokpo Street in the D-Line area of the state capital in the act of printing huge bundles of result sheets for the said election. He said the culprit had mentioned the name of a former commissioner of agric in the state as his client. Wike also said the culprit was not a card-carrying member of the APC but worked for his main rival in the 2015 governorship election that went to the Supreme Court.
According to him, the printing press had already completed two sets for two local government areas before he said the police got wind of the act. The suspect was arrested alongside three of his staff, Richard Koko from Okrika, Nanee Godday from Khana and one Tammy Garrick. Items recovered, he said, included state-of-the-art printing machine and computers. He said the police also recovered INEC result sheets serial number booklets, which the printer allegedly used to authenticate the result sheets.
The governor said he was sure President Muhammadu Buhari was unaware of efforts being made to rig elections in Rivers State, saying he was so sure because when Mr President learnt about deduction of bailout loan whereas the state did not collect, that the president rebuked the officials.
Wike boasted that Rivers was a PDP state and nobody would win any election in the state. He again warned any INEC official venturing into Rivers State to rig elections to be prepared to ‘rig his life’.
The governor since the DSS said it was watching the judges, that the state government too was watching the electoral officers and some others.
The APC had reacted denying the involvement of any of its members or leaders in the said printing, saying it was an operation staged by Wike and his PDP thugs. “Again, information at our disposal indicate that PDP and Gov. Wike’s thugs are going to individual APC members‘ homes to plant incriminating materials then turn around to harass and illegally arrest and detain them with the help of (his identified agent in the police). The activities of this police officer and his associates will be properly unveiled to the public in due course.”
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