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By Joel Anekwe
The Rivers State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has dismissed claims that it is planning a violent protest aimed at disrupting the March 9 governorship and state House of Assembly elections.
Spokesman to the Cole/Giadom Campaign Organisation, Ogbonna Nwuke, while reacting to the claim, said Rivers people were demonstrating their resolve to vote out a reactionary government that has held them hostage.
In a statement in Port Harcourt on Monday Nwuke said Rivers people were planning to gather in Port Harcourt with their PVCs to show “they are tired of a government that is spending Rivers money on the exclusion of Rivers candidates who are offering themselves for leadership.”
“The world must know that Rivers people are ready to show they cannot be intimidated by guns, machetes and explosives. Not even the exclusion of their preferred candidates will change their resolve.
“In gathering at the Isaac Boro Park which has been a symbol of liberation right from the days of the Old Rivers State, Rivers people want to prove that no amount of weapons fashioned against them would stop them from voting on Saturday,” Nwuke said.
He accused Governor Nyesom Wike of planning a bloodbath, adding: “Those who are crying out that a violent protest is underway are the same people who are scheming to intimidate the people through violent means.
“The people are tired of Wike’s misrule. They are coming out with their PVCs to say enough is enough. The Rivers people are peaceful. All they want is to gather peacefully to express themselves and enjoy the right to free association.”
Nwuke said further “security agencies which have responsibility for offering protection and approving mass action have been informed of the plan by Rivers people to gather responsively to demonstrate that their PVCs are the only weapons that they have.
“The people are the ones to decide in which direction the democratic or electoral process would pull. Political parties have no say. Those days are gone. This fact was proved in the presidential and National Assembly elections.
“The Rivers people have the right to choose who should rule them. No amount of intimidation would change that. The peddling of falsehood won’t change that either. Reliance on technical strategies through the courts by anti-democratic forces will not stop the people.
“We are resolute as Rivers people in our decision that Wike must go. On Saturday, Wike would definitely go. This is the position of Rivers people. It is not the resolution of the APC,” he said.
