Blessing Okorite, Port Harcourt
Ahead of the 2019 general elections, the Rotimi Amaechi’s faction of the All Progressives Congress (APC), in Rivers State, has threatened that there will be no elections in the state if Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) do not enlist the party candidates for the elections in the State.
This as the party has also accused INEC and the state Governor, Chief Nyesom Wike, of conspiring to disfranchise Rivers people of their rights to vote choice of candidates in the elections.
The APC made the threat yesterday, during a press conference by the party’s candidates for National and State Assemblies, in Port Harcourt.
The party’s candidates insisted that there was no court order restraining APC from holding primaries in the State, adding that INEC lacks power to delist names of candidates submitted to them.
Speaking on behalf of other candidates, Mr Henry Odili , candidate for Onelga/Ahoada West Federal Constituency, demanded that INEC should tender apology to APC and Rivers people with immediate effect.
He stated, “INEC should give the same enabling time and enviroment for political campaigns to the APC in Rivers State as they have given to the PDP and parties”.
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“We the duly nominated National and State Assembly candidates of the APC have watched the strange developments taking place in Rivers State in the buildup to the 2019 general election and have decided to speak up to the relevant agencies and the public before the ambition of one man Governor Wike will plunge Rivers State into another round of avoidable crisis.
He alleged that “the recent happenings in Rivers State and the judicial pronouncements have clearly shown to the world the person Governor Wike behind the intra-party issues within Rivers State APC and what he hoped to achieve from it, which is to exclude the APC from participating in the 2019 elections for fear of his guaranteed loss at the election because of poor performance in government.
“We had been silent as this drama unfolded but because evil thrives when good men do or say nothing, we decided to speak up and let Nigerians know the true position of the political happenings in Rivers State particularly in view of the recent unlawful action of INEC to delist APC National Assembly candidates from the 2019 general election in spite of INEC’s knowledge that the issues relating to it are before various courts of law for which final decisions were still awaited, thus confirming INEC’s collaboration with Governor Wike and the PDP”.
Odili further alleged that the recent action by INEC to delist the National Assembly candidates from participating in the election without waiting for the plethora of cases pending before various courts to take their course through the apex court for final decisions was all in a bid to satisfy Governor Wike.
“What INEC has done in this regard is to destroy or tamper with the ‘Res’ of our appeals without their being fully determined”.
Odili pointed out, “The electoral law recognising that the electoral process is a time limited event arising from the provisions of the Nigerian Constitution (1999) was crafted such that the courts would not interfere with it but the courts in Rivers State have willfully violated this thereby affecting the rights of Rivers people to freely choose their leaders/representatives.
“We are aware that there was no suit, not to talk of a subsisting court order, stopping APC from holding primaries in Rivers State. This is notwithstanding the fact that S. 87 (10) of the Electoral Act 2010, (as amended) clearly prohibits the Courts from stopping the holding of the primaries of any Political Party even pending the determination of any suit in Court”.
“We the National and State Assembly candidates of APC recognising these Constitutional provisions and the provisions of the electoral law of Nigeria have participated in the electoral process to the point of being sponsored as candidates of our party the APC and duly nominated/recognised by INEC as such”.
The party called INEC to provide a level playing field for all parties by the agencies of government to avoid a repeat of blood spill witnessed in 2015 in the 2019 general elections.
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Reacting on the accusation of the state Governor on the APC crisis, Commissioner for Information in the state, Barr. Emma Okay, said Governor Nyesom Wike has no hand in the Rivers APC crisis as alleged by the APC candidates.
Okah’s words, “Governor Nyesom Ezenwo Wike has no hand in the self inflicted problem the APC brought upon itself through recurring acts of impunity, lack of respect for the judiciary, and want of internal democracy in their party. Wike is not a member of APC.
“He never asked the APC to disobey court order or refuse to resolve internal problems.”