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My Battle For River By Gov Wike by kingsman66(m): 5:26pm On Apr 04, 2016 |
Governor Nyesom Wike, in this interview, speaks
on the battle for Rivers State. Wike alleges that
the Independent National Electoral Commission
(INEC) and the security services worked against
his party, the PDP, in recent rerun polls into the
National and state assemblies.
It is reported that there was an incident at Mile
One Police Station between you, the police and
the military. Can you throw some light on the
incident?.
I was sleeping when I got a text that one of the
candidates of my party, a former member of
the House of Representatives, who was also a
candidate in the re-run polls, Blessing Nseigbe,
had been abducted and was at Mile One Police
Station. I said it was not possible because I saw
her the previous night with the leader of the
party in Port Harcourt.
In fact, most of my workers had not even come
to work because they closed very late the night
before. So, I decided to drive down to see what
happened. When I got there, she was there
actually and they said she was upstairs. So, I
went upstairs and asked about what happened.
She told me there was a collation officer they
had been looking for all through the night. But
that they got information in the morning that
the woman was at the Mile One Police Station;
so they decided to find out what actually took
place .
People were collating election result at Saint
Andrew's School, but they could not find the
Ward 10 Collation Officer. As she was asking
them the whereabouts of the collation officer,
the police told her to go upstairs. She said why.
They said she must come upstairs. Then before
she knew what was happening, soldiers had
surrounded the place. I suspected that was why
they had to send me that text. So, when I got
there, I saw the soldiers. I asked what the
problem was, and they said they got
information that people had been attacked at
the Mile One Police Station. I said that if people
had been attacked, was it soldiers that will
come into the police station? So, I went upstairs
and they now brought the woman, the collation
officer. I asked her what the problem was. She
said as they were coming out from the INEC
office, somebody told her that a person wanted
to give her a ride, but she said they were
many, that she had to join her group. But the
person who wanted to give the ride said it
didn't matter. So, she now entered the vehicle.
As she entered the vehicle, the person was no
longer going to the collation. He diverted and
then they told her to switch off her phone. I
now asked her: How could somebody give you
a ride when INEC had provided a bus for all of
you to go to the collation centre? Assuming now
it is true she was kidnapped, people will now
say it happened in Port Harcourt, they
kidnapped an Electoral Officer. I think they
organized this kidnapping. So where was the
result sheet? She said the police took it and this
and that. So, I called the AIG in charge of the
election. Then, some APC people came. I made
my report and I think they took the woman to
the state police headquarters for further
interrogation. But we discovered that the
woman is the girl friend of an APC House of
Representatives candidate. So, if at all it was
kidnapping, it was masterminded by the
candidate. And she had already prepared a
result in the spread sheet without the unit ward
results collated.
You did say that, from what you saw in the
field, INEC was not prepared for the elections.
Having finished the elections, do you have a
change of mind? And how did your party fare
in the elections?
As early as 9 a.m, on the election day, I was
getting calls from local government areas. I got
a call from Bonny Local Government Area that
the result sheets they brought to them were not
original. I said, 'how do you know the original
result?' They said the one they saw for the
Senate was different, that you could see the
coat of arms, the one for the House of
Assembly, you could see the coat of arms, but
the one for the House of Representatives, there
was nothing and it was not even signed. I said
they should hold on to enable me get to the
REC. I got the REC on phone and told him about
the complaint. He said the problem he was
having was that he told the electoral officers to
countersign results that did not have codes or
whatever to make them look like original. So
the problem he had was that most of them did
not sign.
I told him there had been suspicion that results
would be swapped, and that what he should
have done, knowing that he had this problem,
was not only to tell the EOs but also to tell the
agents of the parties at the state headquarters
so that they can now communicate to their
parties' supporters at the various local
governments. As things are now, it will be
difficult for you to convey that message. So,
already there had been suspicions, people
accused INEC of appointing ad-hoc staff who are
members of a political party and that they have
it on authority that people were getting result
sheets and would be swapped, so that created
crisis. That is what happened in most of the
LGAs. But before we reached a conclusion to tell
the other LGAs to go ahead with the election,
some of them had decided that they could not
continue with the election. It was too late. It
happened in my own LG. In the Senate segment
of the rerun polls, we had original result
sheets; House of Assembly, original, but House
of Representatives, it was like fake. So, I said,
"Okay, I am from this local government, do the
election, let me see how they will bring the
original that they want'. So, so many local
governments agreed and went on. Some, before
they could settle, it was late.
In Andoni Local Government, that was also the
issue. It also happened in Gokana and Khana. It
was this issue of result sheet. So, by the time
they made up their mind, it was 3pm and
election ought to have been conducted by 2pm,
so by 3pm, they said lit was not possible to do
the election.
I had warned that today's Nigeria is not
yesterday's Nigeria. There were things done in
a wrong way yesterday. Does not mean it will
continuously happen? Time will come when
people will say this cannot continue to happen.
I warned that nobody should make an attempt
to rig the election, that people will resist it and,
in resisting, it could lead to a lot of things.
I also said the military should not play a role in
the polling and collation . Recall that I said that
Ogoni is a sensitive area when it has to do with
the military. What happened? I was the one
who called the Brigade Commander that I heard
that there were problems in Gokana and Khana
and even in Tai. I can send my Commissioner
for Information on errand. But the
commissioner could go beyond what I sent him.
Sometimes, the leadership of the military can
send people for an operation and tell them to
make sure things are done properly.
But there could be some over zealous people
who will go beyond that and, in doing that,
crisis may ensue. So, when soldiers went to
Khana, instead of supporting the police to make
sure polling materials get to the various polling
units, they said no agents should be there. How
can there be no agent when you are moving
materials? The rule is clear, before materials
are sent out, agents of various political parties
must be there. So, why do you now come to say
no agent should be there. Who are you
favouring? So the people said it will not
happen, that they must be there. My
Commissioner for the Environment, Professor
Roseline Konya, went there to say this was not
the way to do it, that our agents must be where
the materials were, so that they will see what
they were sending out and follow the materials
to the various polling units. They manhandled
the commissioner, a woman for that matter. So,
women now came out to say how could the
soldiers manhandle a mother, merely because
she said things should be done properly? And,
of course, some youths said they couldn't take
it. That was in Khana.
In Tai, some military men, whether they were
fake or original, acted illegally. In our Security
Council meeting, we agreed that they would be
given tags. Anybody without that tag is not a
real military person. So, the materials that
were in the RAC centre, the military now came
in a bus and commanded the corps members,
presiding officers to enter the bus, took the
materials, but our agents were supposed to be
in that bus. The soldiers said the party agents
must not be there. But instead of taking the
materials to the various polling units, they
diverted to a House of Representatives
candidate. So, as our agents followed the bus,
the soldiers shot at them, two persons died. So,
when people talk about violence, nobody wants
to ask how the military killed those two people
in Tai. As the elections went on, my Chief of
Staff called to say they shot his PA. The
gubernatorial candidate of APC, Dakuku
Peterside, and his deputy went to Ikwerre Local
Government collation centre, with military and
police officers. They are neither from Ikwerre
Local Government nor from that senatorial
district. But they went there and allegedly
hijacked the Electoral Officer (EO)and the result
and put them in an armoured vehicle. I called
the Brigade Commander to tell him what I
heard. He told me that his Commanding Officer
deployed some of his men to protect Dakuku,
his deputy and the EO and take them to Port
Harcourt. I told him I didn't believe him.
Within ten minutes, I was called from the
Airport Junction to be told that the military
men there retreated and then gave opportunity
to the security men with Dakuku and the rest of
them to start firing. In fact, a House of
Assembly candidate Azubuike Nwajoku took his
own bulletproof car to hit the vehicle of the EO
and pushed him to the bush. They were able to
take the spread sheet result of the Emohua
Local Government. The men now ran to the
bush and they were firing. Why are we saying
this? When I see people making comments from
one side, you don't even ask questions.
Now, my Chief of Staff pursued Dakuku and co
to the UTC area, close to the DSS office. They
shot his driver and PA. I sent my security aides
to the DSS Headquarters and called the Director
but he said they were attacking his office. A
governorship candidate, because his master lost
in his LGA, they were making trouble.
They are too desperate. But it will come to a
time when the people will say enough is
enough. We can't continue this way. When I
voted, you were there, I commended the
security arrangement. Why did I commend
them? Because when we had Security Council
meeting, they told me that security will be
beefed up every where. And security was
actually beefed up. But when we say 10 people
died, 20 people must have died. Did you get to
the families to know if they lost somebody?
Sometimes, it is good to go beyond and find
out. I have told you that soldiers shot two
people in Tai, and that no result went to the
collation centre. If they had gone to the polling
unit to hijack, it is a different thing. Is that how
things are supposed to be done? Throughout
my political career, I have never seen the level
of involvement of military like it took place in
the rerun polls. What I thought would have
been the function of the military was to provide
security at strategic locations, know where
criminals can come in from, know where they
can go, so that we would not have any attack
and, luckily, you can attest to the fact that, in
Port Harcourt, Obio/Akpor, apart from
somebody who was shot at Rumuokwuta
Junction,. what happened? The police at
Rumuokwuta Junction, said there was a woman
who was driving by and they stopped her. The
woman refused to stop. There is a polling unit
on the road there. The shots now hit a boy and
the policemen immediately left that junction.
Ask the DPO of Rumuoprikon Police Station.
How was my Secretary to Government
arrested? He is the Secretary of Security Council
meetings which the Brigade Commander
attends, Airforce Commander attends; DSS
Director and the CP also attend. So, he relates
with the security agencies. All logistics to all the
security agencies pass through the office of the
SSG. So it's not as if they don't know him. What
happened? Magnus Abe is from his local
government, so you expect that there would be
some kind of challenge, but he said he wouldn't
allow electoral materials to leave and the
military people said no, the materials must
leave. Without respect, they took him and put
him in an armored personnel carrier. I said I
won't call anybody, I won't even talk to them,
whatever they wanted to do with him was their
business.
But what I know in life, freedom does not come
easy, you must make sacrifices. What is
happening in Rivers State today is not the
amount of propaganda. I have told people they
cannot rig election where they are not popular.
If you try to rig election where you are not
popular, that is the resistance you are seeing.
When we were in power at the centre, they said
we had federal might, we had the army, we
had the police, we had INEC. They have the
INEC, they have the police, they have the army,
which one do we have now? We have only the
people that will resist rigging.
Security
I worked tirelessly to see how we could
improve security. It had nothing to do with
politics. I have given the security agencies
support all the way. I don't appoint the CP
here, I don't appoint the Director of DSS, I don't
appoint the Brigade Commander. They have
changed my CP three times; when the CP is
trying to work with the government, they will
call the IG to say the CP is working with the
governor, remove him and the IG will remove
that one. They will bring another one. That one
will now stay to study the security situation in
the state and start to plan; and in planning he
needs the support of the state government.
There is no way any police can work without
the support of the state government. The army,
the DSS, we give logistics. It is not a personal
thing, it is the state government. So when that
one is trying to settle down and they tell that
one to arrest everybody that they think has
something to do in his local government, and if
that one does not arrest, they change that one.
DSS, they change that one. This one just came,
they removed the other one. So, in terms of
security, how do you organize it? So who will
you now say is causing all these security
problems, when a CP cannot stay and strategise,
when a Director of DSS cannot stay and
strategise on how to tackle the issue of
security?
How do you rate your party's performance in
the elections?
Since the courts annulled the elections in
December, we had started preparing for the
rerun. Like I have always said, a good
candidate does not prepare a day to the
election, I mean the rerun. A good student
starts from when the class starts. So, when the
Court of Appeal annulled the elections, we met
and started preparing, but those in the
opposition APC were waiting because they have,
according to them, the federal might. We went
to the grassroots and charged our people to
protect and defend our votes.
So we never had any doubt we were going to
win the elections. |
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