Rivers Rerun: PDP Challenges Abe At Tribunal

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Rivers State says it has headed to the Election Petitions Tribunal to challenge the declaration of Magnus Abe as winner of the just concluded re-run election in the Rivers South East Senatorial District.
A statement by the state Chairman of the PDP, Bro. Felix Obuah in Port Harcourt, yesterday, said the declaration of Abe as winner in the purported election was a grave error as available records show that the military, SARS personnel and other security agencies massively rigged the election in the whole of the Rivers South East Senatorial District on December 10, 2016 in favour of Abe.
The state PDP chairman made the position of the party clear on the stolen mandate in his goodwill message to Ogoni people on the 2017 Great Ogoni Day celebration.
While wishing them a very successful Ogoni Day celebration, Obuah said the right of the people of Rivers South East Senatorial District to elect the candidate of their choice through the ballot box was sacrosanct and must not be toyed with, stressing that the PDP will never rest until this injustice against the people was addressed and the opportunity to have a candidate of their choice given to them as of right.
The statement, which was signed by Obuah’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Jerry Needam, said the party had sufficient evidence to show that what happened in the Rivers South East Senatorial District on December 10, 2016, was nothing but a display of military bravado against the PDP and the Ogoni people, orchestrated by the combined forces of Magnus Abe, Barry Mpigi, on one hand, and the men of SARS, police and Army on the other hand.
Obuah said he was upbeat that the PDP would have the last laugh at the Election Petitions Tribunal, adding that Magnus Abe is only a caretaker senator of the All Progressives Congress (APC) who was smuggled into the Senate with the connivance of INEC, SARS, Army and the police, assuring that his tenure in the Senate would be short-lived.
He called on the people of Rivers South East Senatorial District, especially Senator Olaka Nwogu, whose mandate had been stolen, to remain calm and hopeful, adding that anything taken through the backdoor would not stand, as Nwogu would surely reclaim his mandate.
The PDP chairman also expressed optimism that Abe’s desperation for power would soon be exposed as evidenced by his recent clandestine activities.
According to the PDP chairman, Abe has in the past weeks been concocting results in his private residence, just to ensure that they tally with figures manufactured for him by INEC.
Obuah argued that these were some of the measures being taken by the caretaker senator in anticipation of his fraudulent declaration by the INEC being challenged by the PDP.