Four governorship candidates in today’s election in Rivers State have accused the Police of claiming ignorance of the arrest and detention of their supporters on the orders of Governor Nyesom Wike.
The governorship candidates include Senator Magnus Abe of the Social Democratic Party (SDP); Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs of the Accord Party; Chief Tonte Ibraye of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) and Pastor Tonye Cole of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Addressing journalists when they stormed the Police headquarters in Port Harcourt yesterday to protest the illegal arrests, APC’s Tonye Cole said even the Assistant Inspector-General of Police in-charge of elections in the state, Kayode Egbetokun claimed he was not aware of the arrests.
Cole said: “We are at the Police state headquarters based on some very disturbing things we are seeing in the political space in Rivers State. As you can see, this is a multi-party decision. We have on good record that we have been victimised, intimidated and our members are being arrested.
“The governor, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, gave an instruction to all local government chairmen and their party stalwarts to enforce intimidation on the people of Rivers State and this cannot be allowed.
“As we speak now, party members across board are being arrested. We have come to the Police headquarters, we met with the Commissioner of Police briefly and he said he has to go off and he will be back in an hour.
“We have waited for him patiently and he is not back. We told him what the situation was and he said he is not aware of what is happening in the state. There is an Assistant Inspector-General of Police in-charge of elections, who also does not know that people are being arrested in this state.”
Also speaking, SDP governorship candidate, Senator Magnus Abe, said most of the people Wike directed the Police to arrest and prosecute were members of opposition political parties in the state.
Abe said, “Last night, the governor of Rivers State made a state-wide broadcast and in that broadcast, he named several persons who are to be arrested and directed police to declare them wanted, arrest them and prosecute them immediately. Most of those people named in that broadcast are simply those who have been campaigning for other political parties.”
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