APC spokesman in Rivers State, Darlington Nwauju disclosed this in a statement.
The All Progressives Congress in Rivers State has accused security agencies of conniving with Governor Nyesom Wike to rig the March 18 Governorship and State House of Assembly Elections in the state.
APC spokesman in Rivers State, Darlington Nwauju disclosed this in a statement.
Darlington alleged that the governor connived with the Nigeria police personnel to steal legal documents meant for the election petition tribunal.
The police in the state recently arrested three lawyers of the APC while filing a legal proceeding against the results of the March 18 governorship election.
The lawyers – Jerry Aondo, Dr Sobere Nelson, and Odum Eyiba – who are from the chambers of a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Tuduru Ede, were arrested at a hotel they had lodged in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital.
Their arrest came 48 hours after the APC governorship candidate in the election, Tonye Cole led the party executives to the office of the Independent National Electoral Commission to protest against the refusal to release to him the Certified True Copies of documents used for the election as ordered by the court.
The lawyers were said to be preparing petitions for the party ahead of their appearance at the election tribunal on Monday, April 3, 2023.
They were taken to the police intelligence and surveillance unit, Ogunabali.
They had items such as laptops, exhibits required for their petition defence, agent’s copy of form extra result sheets (EC8), and certified true copies (CTC) of INEC documents seized by the police.
A source had identified SP Salihu Masalachi who is the Commander of Rivers State Special Surveillance Unit as the leader of the team who arrested the lawyers.
The security outfit, called C4i, was re-launched in 2021 by Wike.
Masalachi was also accused of being involved in separate attacks on opposition parties in the state.
Darlington while analysing Wike’s media chat on Tuesday said what the governor did – brandishing a flash drive purportedly containing details of APC legal briefs – is illegal.
He added that laptops and other evidence critical to the APC litigation at the Election Petitions Tribunal had been hacked into in order to steal information.
The statement read, “The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State has analysed today’s media chat by the outgoing Governor of the state and we are forced to deposit the following:
“By virtue of his live media chat today, Gov. Wike confirmed that he, INEC and the Nigeria Police arrested the three (3) APC lawyers ostensibly to obtain our party’s evidence of the electoral heist that took place in Rivers State through coercion;
“By his own admittance, he connived with the operatives of the Nigeria Police to steal APC documents;
“In the annals of Nigerian political history, what Gov. Wike did by brandishing a flash drive purportedly containing details of APC legal briefs, is akin to the Water-gate scandal in the United States of America under President Richard Nixon, wherein five burglars linked to President Nixon were arrested at the Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters in the Watergate office-apartment-hotel complex in Washington, D.C. on June 17, 1972. By this very public confession of Gov. Wike, it is very clear that the laptops and other evidence critical to the APC litigation at the Election Petitions Tribunal were hacked into in order to steal information.
“This to our mind should be of serious concern to Nigerians, especially to the Body of Benchers and lawyers in Nigeria as the Governor’s actions and utterances keep casting a huge question mark on the integrity of the legal profession. We now know reason why the three APC lawyers arrested on April 1st 2023 were first taken to the C4i Surveillance Intelligence Unit at Hypercity, a facility allegedly owned by him.
“Afterall, the Police at the State Criminal Investigations Department (SCID) and INEC staff from the ICT department confirmed that there was nothing incriminating or untoward about the documents found on these lawyers.
“Today’s media chat has also confirmed our fears as Rivers people that Gov. Wike actually positioned the PDP thugs at INEC office and has been working in cahoots with them which led to the attack on our Governorship candidate, Pastor (Arch) Tonye Cole on Monday, 3rd April 2023 and the subsequent brazen attack on the APC state secretariat at Woji road GRA same day.
“We are fully aware that the so-called protesters stationed at the INEC PH office are not there to prevent the smuggling in of results that were written anywhere as the Governor claimed in his media chat; we are rather aware that the protesters are there to give shield to the INEC officials who are still busy writing results to match the figures that were ridiculously announced in favour of the PDP on the 18th of March 2023.
“We have also been informed that the venue of the election petition tribunal (EPT) shall be given the INEC treatment and then, top APC leaders in the state have also been marked for brutal attacks in order to ensure that the parties quest to recover its mandate through the Courts does not see the daylight.
“We are mortified at the intimidation of Mr Kayode Okikiolu of Channels TV, one of the anchors of today's media chat who asked very salient questions about the attack on our party secretariat. The attitude of Gov Wike to Mr Okikiolu emblematizes the totalitarian leadership style with which the outgoing Governor has run the affairs of the State for almost 8yrs.
“Let the people of Nigeria judge the manner of democracy Rivers state is currently witnessing!”