APC Was Relying On Lies, Propaganda & Federal Might To Take Rivers' - Wike

Rivers State has been in the news lately for several reasons including the outcome of the elections petitions in the state resolved in favour of Governor Nyesom Wike who is on a victory lap. In this exclusive interview with Onyebuchi Ezigbo, he spoke on several touchy issues including his experiences at the petitions and courts, allegations of looting $150 million made against his predecessor, Rotimi Amaechi, the allegations leveled against him by APC governorship candidate Dakuku Peterside concerning the Supreme Court ruling, the dwindling price of crude oil, the stalled Mono-rail project, the loans he took from banks and other topical issues

The Supreme Court has affirmed your mandate as the elected governor. How does it feel now that you don’t have to look forward to a rerun?
Thank you for the opportunity to express how I feel after the judgment of the Supreme Court. It is like asking me how do I feel when I have succeeded in my studies after passing through the university and the university has confirmed me as being worthy in character. What I am saying is that the judgment of the Supreme Court has made me to be more committed to God because God indeed came down to manifest Himself and to say I am in charge of the affairs of every man. The Supreme Court judgment reaffirmed our commitment, gave hope to Nigerians that all hope is not lost. The judgment of the Supreme Court saved this nation from the kind of crises that would have occurred if there was an order for rerun. Not neccessarily because of the order for a rerun but if it were to be the right order, rather from the desperation of the ruling party at the national level. We know this from our experience and looking at what happened in Baylesa.

Some of the states that they consider a-must-take are Rivers State and Akwa Ibom State. So, if you take it from that perspective, there was desperation, and a feeling of “We must take Rivers state” which was confirmed by the national chairman of the All Progressive Congress (APC). The National chairman did state this when the Court of Appeal annulled our election. He came out and said they are also going to take Akwa Ibom, as at that time Akwa Ibom hadn’t been annulled. When the Supreme Court gave this judgment, you saw how he was agitated and how he reacted that the judgment was so astonishing to them and, why it was so to them was because, by their own calculation, the takeover of Rivers state had been concluded, the takeover of Akwa Ibom state had been concluded and so since that wasn’t the case, they said it was not a reality; that it is a drama, but indeed they didn’t take into consideration that God has the final say. That man can propose but God can dispose. For me, it was happiness and joy and it should not be because of me that there would be bloodshed and I told those who are close to me that I know my people will resist any attempt by anybody to rig an election and if they are resisting then that will lead to violence and that will lead to bloodshed. It gives me happiness that God said no it won’t be because of you that there would be bloodshed in Rivers state. When the ruling party at the national level was crying out, it showed that if there was anything they wanted to do then that thing had already been done. In fact, I can even tell you that when Dr. Chris Ngige’s father died; during the burial ceremony in Church, Dakuku Peterside was introduced as the incoming governor of Rivers state not minding that the matter was still before the Supreme Court. So, to them that was fiat accompli, the matter had been concluded. In fact, INEC had gone ahead to fix February 6th as date for a re-run election. Yes I said so because before the judgement of the Supreme Court, INEC had invited my party chairman and other political parties to prepare for a re-run on the 6th of February and I asked why would we have a re-run when we are expecting the Supreme Court’s judgement? Is it that we are going to do a re-run now and if the governorship election is annulled by the Supreme Court, then you do another election and they said no but that they believe because the tribunal, the Court of Appeal had upheld the annulment that it would be difficult for the Supreme Court not to follow suit. Therefore, they have put February 6 as re-run date. So, that shocked me. After the Supreme Court judgement, you should have seen the reaction in the state; everybody was happy and joyful in the state which goes to confirm to you that indeed God used the Supreme Court to avert bloodshed; to bring peace to the state, to say there won’t be bloodbath and so, asking me how I feel, I feel like dancing everyday and giving thanks to God that it is not because of me and it won’t be during my time that there would be blood bath.

Talking about bloodshed, one of the reasons APC advanced in seeking to nullify your election was that there was violence and massive bloodshed during the Rivers state election. In fact, they mentioned that about 100 people were killed.
I thank you for that question. I will expose their ignorance and the kind of lies they tell. If you say that there was violence, if you say people died in the course of the election, if you say that some people were kidnapped, is it not their responsibility to show evidence of those who died in that election. They needed to let the tribunal know the people that were kidnapped. As I speak to you, let them mention one death certificate that was tendered at the Tribunal to show that during the election that Mr. Z died, look at the death certificate. In the course of this election, look at the dead bodies, look at those that were kidnapped, look at those arrested perpetrating the violence, not one was shown. So, it is not enough for you to say there was violence and you say people died, people were kidnapped and you didn’t show the Tribunal evidence

that people died, that people were kidnapped during the election and it will now be left to the Tribunal to make up their mind and say look, having shown us this death certificate, having shown us these people that were kidnapped, those that were arrested and injured then we are truly convinced that this people died during the course of the election, but not one was tendered in evidence. It is not even enough to say I have brought video coverage of people who died, because assuming that there was video coverage and the coverage shows people being killed, you must go beyond this to say yes this death occurred during the election; not to talk of a situation where it wasn’t shown at all. Now, how did the Tribunal come to the conclusion that there was violence in the election? Rather, what they did was to base their argument on hearsay. Not even newspapers were tendered to show as evidence. The army came, even those that weren’t part of the election, came to testify and they said they didn’t arrest anybody, the police came and also said they didn’t arrest anybody. They also confirmed they didn’t see anybody thumb-printing, that they didn’t arrest anyone with electoral materials. So, how was the election violent? They only said that they were hearing shootings but they couldn’t arrest one person. Ask the SSS what happened? We were told that election didn’t take place in some areas. Now, tell me, is that enough for the Tribunal to say yes, there was violence. So you see the entire trial was based on propaganda, on nonexistent facts. In their petition they said they will show in the course of the trial video coverage where people were thumb-printing, where people were killed and they will use forensic examination to show that there were multiple thumb-printing but not one was shown, not even the forensic expert, not one. The Tribunal granted them leave to go and inspect. Ask them what the result of the inspection was. Did they tender any document to show that this was the result of our inspection? So, it is not just to say, Army said there was no election, SSS said there was no election, Police said there was no election; did you tender any security report be it from the Army, SSS or police saying this is our security report, that election wasn’t conducted. All they did is wear black shirts and say those people who killed our people God will pay them back, where are these people that were killed? Who made statement to the police that their person was killed? Who has seen their dead body?