Rivers State governor, Rotimi Amaechi, has alleged that out-going first lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, has been putting pressure on INEC’s resident electoral commissioner in the state, Mrs Gesila Khan, to rig the Governorship and House of Assembly elections in favour of the PDP.
Amaechi, who made the allegation while speaking at a town hall meeting at the Dr Obi Wali Conference Centre in Port Harcourt, said the first lady, who arrived Rivers State on Wednesday, has been holding series of meetings with senior officers of the security agencies including the REC, Mrs. Khan.
The governor said, “The wife of the president has been holding series of meetings in her house aimed at influencing the outcome of the election. We will resist it. We will not allow what happened during the presidential election to happen again. Mrs Jonathan cannot choose a governor for us. Rivers people have the right to choose who should be their governor.”
He wondered why the president’s wife is so interested in the governorship election, adding that she asked for the deployment of security men to Rivers State during the last election.
Amaechi said, “Let the wife of the president remain in her house. She should not foist a candidate on us. We the people of Rivers State will decide who our next governor will be. The president’s wife brought militants back to Rivers State so that they can be used to rig election. We will chase away the militants after the election.”
He maintained that members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) will not vote if they do not see the result sheets and this will apply to all the units and wards in the 23 local governments, and urged members and supporters of the APC to be very vigilant.
The governor said, “We will not vote if we don’t see the result sheets. Ask the INEC officials for the result sheets. If they fail to produce them, then form a human ring round the INEC officials and together with the security men escort the ad-hoc staff to the local government headquarters and lodge your complaints. But make sure nobody votes in any unit that cannot produce the original result sheets. We will not accept photocopies.”
“We will do what we do in our village: we call it the Obima formula. Our youths usually lock down the village. No one comes in and no one goes out. I am pleading that INEC should not endanger the lives of its staff by holding on to the original result sheets”.
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