Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike
Chukwudi Akasike, Port Harcourt
RIVERS State Governor, Chief Nyesom Wike, has called on the Independent National Electoral Commission and the Nigeria Police to obey the directive of President Muhammadu Buhari to conduct a free-and-fair election rerun in the state.
Wike alleged that the police were trying to cause crisis in the state by refusing to arrest those involved in the printing of fake election result sheets.
President Buhari had directed that elections in Ondo and Rivers states must be violence-free.
The governor, who spoke with newsmen at the Government House in Port Harcourt on Wednesday, decried the transfer of the result sheet matter to Zone 6, Calabar and added that the crime of printing fake election result sheets was one that could be handled by the Rivers State Police Command.
He called on the Assistant Inspector General of Police, Abubakar Marafa, to allow the state Police Command to handle it.
Wike maintained that the state government would resist any attempt to sweep the matter under the carpet, adding that there were “desperate” moves to kill the matter.
He said, “Police is causing crisis in the state. They should listen to what President Buhari said. The President said that there should be a violence-free election in Ondo and Rivers states. The AIG should leave Rivers State alone and allow the Rivers State Police Command to handle the matter. The incident that happened is not one that cannot be investigated. We will resist any move to kill this matter with all we have.
“First of all, there is no security problem in the state. What we have are people who went to print fake result sheets with the collusion of INEC. All you hear is that there is pressure from Abuja. What we are saying is that we will not allow this to happen.
“What we are trying to avoid is violence so that people don’t capitalise on that. As per the election, you and I know that we have a party that will win. It is not a question of accepting any result. What they are trying to do is to use security to smuggle in fake result and we are saying we will resist that.”
He expressed surprise that a group of persons could be printing fake result sheets for electoral units that had not been announced by the INEC.
“Is it not baffling that INEC has not released the units where elections will hold, but some people are printing result sheets for the same units,” the governor queried.
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