As Abe alleges smear campaign plot

Probe Rivers military invasion —CENTREP

By Emma Amaize

Rivers State governor, Mr Nyesom Wike, has said that only those in support of political armed robbery will kick against his declaration  that any plan to rig election  in the state will be resisted.

This came as Senator Magnus Abe, the All Progressives Congress, APC, candidate for Rivers South-East senatorial district re-run election, alleged of a plot to use the recent military invasion of some communities in the state to malign his person.

Meanwhile, Centre for the Vulnerable and Underprivileged, CENTREP, a rights group in Delta State, has called on the Federal Government to institute an inquest into the recent military invasion of Yeghe and Bori communities in Khan and Gokhana Local Government Areas of Rivers State, which led to the loss of several lives and wanton destruction of multi-billion naira property.

Governor  Wike, who spoke weekend, during  an interdenominational thanksgiving  and victory celebration  of  the historic Supreme Court verdict that validated his election, stated that desperation for power was behind the killing of Ogoni people during an ill-fated military operation in the area  last week.

He said that his administration  will  stand firm to protect the Ogoni people, insisting that he stands for free and fair rerun election in Rivers State. He assured that nobody will  be  allowed to subvert the mandate of the people through the use of the military.

The governor noted that it was the responsibility  of  the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to conduct  credible rerun  election.

He said: “Let me reiterate, that any INEC officer bent on rigging the rerun  election  should first tell his wife and children where his will is kept because  he will  be  treated as a political  armed robber. Popularity  is tested on the ground.  It is not by carrying soldiers around to intimidate voters.”

He urged the  people to vote for the PDP  in all the forthcoming  re-run  election  in the state.

“When I went to Luuwa for the 50th birthday celebration of Senator Lee Maeba, I  told our people not to vote Senator Abe and the APC. There is no way I will play anti-party. Magnus Abe  is my friend,  but the people of Rivers South-East senatorial district should  vote Senator Olaka Nwogu. We have a duty to make sure that the APC  does not win a single seat during the  March 19 rerun election.”

Abe alleges plot

Meanwhile, Senator Abe, on a radio current affairs programme monitored in Port Harcourt,  alleged that a conspiracy had been hatched by Governor Wike and the PDP to malign his character and incite the Ogoni people against him before the March 19, state and National Assembly re-run election.

He said that the case of the military approved by Governor Wike to raid the home of ex-militant leader Solomon Ndigbara was the script the governor and the party were using to malign his character and incite his people against him.

He said that he knew nothing about the operation and had no hand in it.

He said those who knew him would testify that he had never been a desperate politician.

Senator Abe recalled that when the caucuses in the Senatorial district endorsed him in 2003, and the leadership of the party said otherwise and chose Senator Lee Maeba, he quickly supported Maeba without fighting him.

He recalled that when his party did not approve of his ambition to be the governor of Rivers State, he did not fight the party neither did he give them personal conditions but rather presented only the interest of the Ogoni.

CENTREP

On its part, CENTREP, which is also planning to carry out an independent inquest, in a statement by its Executive Director, Mr. Oghenjabor Ikimi, condemned the invasion of some communities in Rivers State as barbaric and evil.

He said: “We,  therefore,  call on the Federal Government to immediately institute an inquest into the incident with a view to determining its immediate and remote causes and the extent of the culpability of the military in the entire operation which lasted for two days with a view to preventing a re-occurrence in future.

“However, as a responsible and responsive human rights group, we are not oblivious of the fact that collective punishment in whatever guise has since been declared a war crime by the United Nations Geneva Convention of 1949.

“To this end, CENTREP has concluded arrangements to carry out its own inquest into the invasion with a view to determining the extent of the culpability of the military in the said operation.”