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Rival politicians in Rivers State appear to be fighting guerrilla warfare as mindless killings continue ahead of rerun legislative elections slated for Saturday, March 19

|  By Olu Ojewale  |  Mar 21, 2016 @ 01:00 GMT  |

BARELY one week to the rerun legislative elections slated for March 19, in Rivers State, it appears, that the whole state is gradually turning into a theatre of guerrilla warfare. Since the beginning of the year, a day hardly passes by without recording a killing or political violence. The key thing about the violence is that the major political parties in the state – The All Progressive Congress and the ruling Peoples Democratic Party – are accusing each other of instigating the violence in a bid to gain upper hand in the forthcoming rerun legislative elections in the state.

Going by the figures being brandished by politicians more than 60 persons were allegedly killed in the past two months. One of the recent ones was the killing Franklin Obi, ward chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Omoku, headquarters of Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni council on Saturday night, March 5. Obi was allegedly killed by masked gunmen who first shot him and then beheaded him. The gunmen also killed the wife and 18-year-old son named Bestman.

On Monday, March 7, it was the turn of Ofinjite Amachree, an APC stalwart in Buguma, Asari-Toru Local Government Area of Rivers State. Amachree was beaten up and thereafter, set ablaze.

Irked by the level of bloodletting in the state, Segun Oni, acting national chairman of the APC, accused Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State of turning the state into a killing field. In a statement issued on behalf of the party’s National Working Committee, NWC, on Wednesday, March 8, the APC called attention of security agencies and other relevant bodies to the latest string of “gruesome politically-motivated killings targeted at the APC members in Rivers State in the lead-up to the March 19, 2016 Rivers State rerun elections into the National Assembly and State House of Assembly,” describing members of the party in the state as “fast becoming endangered species.”

The party, on February 3, 2016, drew the attention of security agencies and other relevant bodies to the alleged brazen statement of Wike in which he called members of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to prepare their will before coming to conduct the March 19, 2016, Rivers State rerun elections.

The governor also allegedly threatened civil servants in the state to either support or work for the People Democratic Party, PDP, his party, or face sack.

“The plot also includes intimidation of eligible voters, INEC officials and security operatives deployed to ensure peaceful, free and credible rerun elections in Rivers state. The APC NWC believes that the threats are already being carried out. The Police and other security agencies must ensure that the murderers and their sponsors are brought to book and must face the full wrath of the law. The security situation in Rivers state is clearly an affront on the Federal Government’s power to protect life and property within its territory,” the APC statement said.

Convinced that the killings were politically motivated, the APC NWC called on the Police and other security agencies to, as a matter of urgency, rise up to stem the tide. “The politically-motivated killings in Rivers State is a real emergency that should not be treated with kid gloves. The situation is distressing, tragic and a huge source of worry to the party,” it said.

The APC is not the only one worried about the turn of events in Rivers State. The Rivers state chapter of the PDP has, similarly, raised the alarm ahead of the forthcoming rerun elections. On Thursday, March 9, the PDP alleged that the APC was plotting to use the military to subvert and rig the rerun elections. Felix Obuah, Rivers State chairman of the PDP, who made the allegation, cautioned leaders of the APC in the state, to desist from pursing what it described as already known ill-conceived tactics of telling lies making frivolous claims and excessive propaganda, and adopt civilised means of mobilising the electorate, if it must be seen as a responsible party.

Obuah further alleged that the APC leaders plan to initiate the militarisation of the state to enable them hijack ballot papers and rig the forth coming re-run legislative elections. He said there had been several coordinated, incisive, provocative, false and completely misleading statements in circulation, emanating from the APC and Dakuku Peterside, its governorship candidate, portraying the state as “a killing field, hunting and killing the APC members.’’

He said: “The PDP condemns the APC for claiming all dead persons in Rivers State as its members killed by the PDP, regretting that in obvious cases of clash by two cult groups, casualties of motor accidents and natural deaths, the APC continues to lay claim to them as its members. The Party calls on the security agencies to properly investigate all claims by the APC on the killing of its members to ascertain the true source of their death.”

The state PDP chairman said the aim of the APC was to paint a picture of an unsafe state in order for state of emergency to be declared so that soldiers would be drafted in to supervise and ensure the success of their well planned, scripted and coordinated hijack of ballot papers, result sheets and rigging of the polls.

Ally in the alleged plan were some lecturers of the University of Port Harcourt, UNIPORT. Apparently worried by the allegation, on Monday, March 7, some lecturers of the UNIPORT who were listed to serve as ad-hoc staff of the INEC in the March 19, state and National Assembly re-run elections in the state opted out of the exercise. The lecturers cited an alleged threat by Governor Wike for their decision.

The lecturers, who met with Ndowa Lale, vice-chancellor of the university, on Monday, March 7, said their decision to stay away from the exercise was as a result of the statement credited to the governor that those who planned to rig the re-run elections should be ready for the consequences.

Wike had told Lale that the APC had infiltrated the list of lecturers from the institution with the aim of rigging the re-run legislative elections through the imposition of politically compromised returning officers.

The governor had also claimed that one Otu Ekpeyong and an APC chieftain in Asari-Toru connived to draw up a list of returning officers from the UNIPORT with the aim of rigging the re-run polls.

Consequently, the governor warned that lecturers who would allow themselves to be used by the APC chieftains would face the wrath of Rivers people.

Ekpeyong disputed the allegation while addressing the gathering of more than 300 lecturers on Monday, March 7, describing himself as a man of integrity who had participated in many elections in the past and wondered why the governor should suspect that he was planning to rig the March 19, re-run elections. The lecturer said he had taken a personal decision not to be part of the election.

“The vice chancellor gave me a job, which I did to the best of my ability. This (INEC ad-hoc employee) is an assignment I have done for over seven years and my integrity has never been in doubt. Personally, I am making a decision of not going anywhere (not to be part of the election),” Ekpeyong said.

Ben Ihewosira, another lecturer, similarly disclosed that he had opted out of the Rivers State re-run elections because the exercise had been politicised.

Towing the same line was Abdulrahman Megida, a senior lecturer, at the same university, who said he had specifically demanded that his name be expunged from the list of the INEC ad-hoc staff for the polls. Megida argued: “My name is synonymous to the All Progressives Congress and you know that the government here is the PDP. Based on that, I want my name to be expunged from the list.”

The INEC had shortlisted about 300 lecturers from the UNIPORT to serve in the election as ad-hoc staff.

That notwithstanding, the vice chancellor had earlier advised the lecturers to stay away from the election if they were not sure of contributing to the conduct of a free, fair and credible election.

However, Lale said that since the INEC had not faulted the list he submitted, he would not withdraw it, adding that doing otherwise would mean authenticating the allegations against the lecturers, whose names were on the list.

“The university will not take it kindly with anybody who may want to rubbish its (UNIPORT) name during the forthcoming elections. I signed the list because I know the people on the list are people with integrity. But each of you should be sure of the decision you want to take. I want you all to be alive after the rerun elections on the 19th of March,” Lale said.

Nonetheless, Governor Wike has dismissed allegations that recent killings in his state were politically motivated and targeted at members of the APC. The governor, who made the statement while swearing in Justice Iyayi Lamikanra as the substantive chief judge of the state, claimed that the killings were clashes of rival cult groups fighting for supremacy. He assured people of the state that the clashes had nothing to do with politics or the coming rerun elections scheduled for March 19. “When politicians perceive a threat and they want to act, they will not say let’s eliminate him. If that happens, you will not ask if it was a politically motivated killing, you will know it is a political killing.

“Not when cultists die from a feud, then some people will start shouting that they are killing their party’s members. Have you asked yourself why no known politician has been killed or even a known person? Why? Does it not tell you something? When you shed other people’s blood, one day you will also die that way. Go to Omoku, all I hear is Icelanders, Greenlanders, all of them are ‘Landers’,” he said.

Incidentally, Icelanders and Greenlanders are rival cult groups in Rivers State whose feud has lingered for many years. Whatever the actual cause of the killings, political rivalries in the state cannot be totally blameless in the situation.

Last weekend, thousands of residents of Rivers South East senatorial district, took to the streets of Bori in Khana Local Government Area on a peaceful procession to mourn relatives, friends and residents allegedly killed when the military stormed Bua-Yeghe community in search of Solomon Ndigbara, a former militant leader, on February 22 and 23.

Led by chieftains of the PDP, the protesters accused Magnus Abe, a senator, of instigating the military action in the area. They also carried about 10 mock coffins with inscription ‘Abe is Dead’ written on them.

Addressing the procession, Lee Maeba, a two-time senator, while condemning the military action, accused the APC of dancing on the grave of the dead by plotting last Wednesday’s walk, supporting the killing of more than 17 residents of Ogoni.

Maeba, while calling on the federal government to withdraw the military men from the area, accused the APC of conspiracy to rig the forth-coming election in connivance with military. “So, my appeal from this day is, all military personnel illegally operating in Ogoniland should go,” he said.

Contrarily, Abe, who is the APC candidate for the Rivers South East senatorial rerun election, said he has made more sacrifices for the cause of Ogoni than many of those criticising him and wondered why the PDP chieftains would want him dead. He also stated that his sacrifices were so many that he just could not recount them starting from when he was in the state House of Assembly, as a commissioner, SSG and senator.

In his clarion call to the federal government, Peterside, governorship candidate of the APC in the last governorship election in Rivers State, claimed that in the past two weeks, more than 30 APC members had been killed in different parts of Rivers State. “We are tired of this bloodbath; this is why we are calling on the federal government and Nigerians generally to come to our aid. As citizens of Rivers State, we know that this heart-rending situation is a fallout of loss of moral right by the Nyesom Wike-led government to fight criminality having benefitted from their activities in the recent past. But this killing must stop and the time is now,” Peterside said.

Indeed, Nigerians are worried about the spate of violence in Rivers State. Onyekachi Ubani, human rights lawyer, blamed politicians in the state for the killings which he said were, no doubt, politically motivated. Ubani said it was the politicians themselves that created the monsters in the state by arming the jobless youths whom they used to fight their political battles. “When you leave arms in the hands of unemployed youths, they can use them for anything, especially when there is no more money from their sponsors,” he said.

Just like Wike said, Ubani also acknowledged activities of cult rivals in the state and said they constituted great menace in the society. “A lot of politicians in the state belong to the cult groups and they are also part of the instruments used by politicians,” he said.

Ebongabasi Ekpe-Juda, a security analyst and public commentator, attributed the killings in the state to the coming legislative elections in the state. “What is surprising about the situation is that our security agencies seemed not to have envisaged it and nip it in the bud,” Ekpe-Juda said.

He, therefore, called for massive deployment of security agencies in the state to stop further loss of lives.

 In the meantime, Musa Kimo, commissioner of Police in Rivers State, has assured that security agencies would do everything humanly possible to maintain law and order in the state.

But the question being asked by everyone viewing the situation in the state is: at what cost?

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