Rivers Govt. Slams APC, Says Renewed Cult Clashes Ploy To Rig Re-run Polls

Nyesom Wike

The Rivers State Government has berated the acting national chairman of All Progressives Congress, APC, Segun Oni, for alleging that Governor Nyesom Wike was behind the rising wave of crime and violence in the state.

The Rivers government described the claim as a ploy by the APC-led federal government to flood the state with soldiers and use them to hijack ballot boxes ahead of the March 19 legislative re-run elections in the state.

The Commissioner for Information and Communications, Rivers State, Austin Tam-George, in a statement issued in Port Harcourt on Thursday, accused the APC of taking propaganda to a ridiculous new height.

He said: “The attempt by the APC to appropriate every dead person in River State as their member might mean that the APC is in fact the sponsor of these satanic cult clashes all in an attempt to destabilize the Wike administration”.

“The APC’s reckless and false allegations were part of a plan to incite the military and other security forces against the people of Rivers State. It is a crude plan to militarize the state and use the security forces to steal the results of the forthcoming re-run election”, Mr. Tam-George alleged.

While denying involvement of the Rivers Government in the cult-related violence that has claimed some lives in certain areas of the state, the commissioner disclosed that investigations by the State Police Command have since revealed that the recent deaths arose from retributive attacks launched by rival cult gangs fighting for supremacy.

Tam-George added that some key culprits in the attacks have since been arrested by the police and have made useful statements.