APC Boycotts Rerun Assembly Polls In Rivers; Heads To Tribunal Over Governorship Election …PDP Dismisses Decision As Futile Efforts

The candidates of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the state assembly election in the six constituencies in Rivers State, where the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) rescheduled election for last Saturday have boycotted the exercise.
Hon Chidi Lloyd, who spoke on behalf of the aggrieved candidates, also disclosed that they have obtained a court injunction restraining INEC from conducting the rescheduled election, which it went ahead to hold last Saturday in the six LGAs.
Lloyd, who is currently the lawmaker representing Emohua constituency, listed many reasons for the boycott, among which was that they have lost confidence in the state Resident Electoral Commissioner, Dame Gesila Khan, to conduct a free and fair election in the state.
The lawmaker also alleged that there has been no official communication by the INEC to them and their party, the APC, on the so-called election, allegedly supervised by Gesila Khan, whose handling of the recent elections has been most controversial.
According to him “with the heavy presence of armed militants during the April 11, 2015 elections, they cannot guarantee the safety of their lives, their supporters and other voters”.
The APC candidates, who quoted the reference number of the court injunction, which they obtained from the Federal High Court, Port Harcourt, on Friday, also added that all the relevant parties in the case have been duly served.
The constituencies, where INEC allegedly conducted the rerun election last Saturday are: Emohua, Etche 1 and 2, Ahaoda East 1 and 2, Bonny, among others.
The Tide learnt that the rerun election of the state assembly was conducted last Saturday despite the protest by the APC.
The INEC is yet to announce the results of the alleged election as at the time of filing this report.
Meanwhile, the Rivers State Chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) says it iwas putting finishing touches to its petition to the State Election Petitions Tribunal in order to reclaim its mandate which it said was allegedly stolen by the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) in connivance with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the police during the governorship polls of April 11.
Rivers APC Chairman, Dr. Davies Ibiamu Ikanya, who disclosed this in a statement on Friday in Port Harcourt, the state capital, reassured the people of Rivers State that the mandate, which they freely gave to the party and to its governorship candidate, Dr. Dakuku Peterside, would soon be retrieved for the good of the future of the state.
“This brazen electoral theft by Chief Nyesom Wike and his PDP gangsters cannot be allowed to stand. These power-drunk anti-democratic elements, in their desperation for power, were not discreet in their electoral fraud that saw the allocation of a bogus over a million votes to Wike. The documents and video tapes so far assembled will surely see many Rivers INEC and PDP chieftains thrown into jail at the end of the day,” Ikanya claimed.
Rivers APC declared that it has an iron-cast case against Wike and the  PDP, saying that it was not surprised that Wike, who cannot win up to 30 per cent of the votes in a free and fair election in Rivers State, is now desperately running from pillar to post in a bid to prevent APC from going to the tribunal.
“We wish to appeal to our members and the entire people of Rivers State to remain calm and resolute as the party goes to the tribunal to retrieve its stolen mandate. Our case is as clear as daylight, as even Prof. Wole Soyinka, Ambassador John Endwistle of the United States of America, the European Union Electoral Observers and other international bodies have since testified that the elections purportedly conducted in Rivers State were a sham,” Ikanaya noted.
He said that Wike’s fate had become sealed by the failure to burn the INEC office in Port Harcourt, thereby making it impossible to do away with the evidence of his bare-faced electoral fraud.
“With this development, Wike will now join the league of Sir Celestine Omehia, who spent only four months as governor of Rivers State before he was sacked by the Supreme Court in 2007. This is a case which we shall pursue to a logical conclusion not only to retrieve our stolen mandate but also to ensure that the plot of sharing Rivers State Federal Allocation among the 10 main key actors of PDP in the state does not materialise,” Ikanya further stated.
But in a swift reaction ato the threat by the APC, leadership to challenge the Rivers State Governorship Election results released by INEC in the tribunal, the Rivers State chapter of the PDP has described the decision of the APC as a wasteful venture, expressing optimism that its candidate and the Governor-elect, Chief Nyesom Wike, will still emerge victorious.
The state PDP Chairman, Bro Felix Obuah, in a statement signed by his Special Adviser, Media, Jerry Needam, noted that inasmuch as it is normal, justifiable and democratic for election results to be challenged in appropriate courts, it finds the Rivers APC’s case may not yield any positive result, as  according to it, the party does not have any authentic evidence to justify its claims that the exercise was compromised by the INEC officials, the security agencies and the PDP in the state.
The party, while cautioning the Rivers State Governor, Amaechi Amaechi, APC governorship candidate, Dr Dakuku Peterside, Dr Davies Ibiamu Ikanya and other APC chieftains on their actions, stressed that “it is aware that they have procured and are funding production of fake and doctored video footages, which are currently being produced in known video studios in Port Harcourt and two other local government council areas in the state.”
Reacting to APC’s claims that its effort was to reclaim the party’s mandate, the PDP alleged that it was the party’s mandate that was stolen by Governor Amaechi and the APC that has been recovered, stressing that Rivers people have purportedly spoken through their overwhelming votes for the PDP and the Governor-elect, Chief Nyesom Wike at the polls.
“The PDP has nothing to fear in case Ikanya and his team of bad losers approach the tribunal. Our concern is the fact that they should rather prepare to go to jail for the numerous electoral fraud committed not only in Rivers but in other states during the March 28 and April 11 elections, including Sokoto, Kano, Abia, Imo, Kaduna, Bauchi, Jigawa, among others,” the PDP said.
The PDP also called the attention of the international community and INEC to the alleged “continued hiring of groups and local people, decorating them as foreign or accredited local observers with huge sum paid to them by Amaechi as inducement only for them to condemn the conduct of the elections in the state.”
The PDP regretted that the APC has “refused to accept the reality and join forces with the real progressives and democratic minds to move the state forward.”
The PDP, therefore, advised the public not to be deceived by the APC supporters who claim that the results of the elections would be upturned as such is an imagination of underdogs, and called on Rivers people to support the incoming governor, Chief Nyesom Wike, for a better deal.

APC Governorship candidate in Rivers State, Dr. Dakuku Peterside with wife of the executive governor of Rivers State, Mrs. Judith Amaechi, at the burial ceremony of his father-in-law, Chief Charles O. Adie, in Ogoja, Cross River State, at the weekend.