Rivers Elections: PDP’s threats to non-indigenes resulted in voter apathy — Tonye Cole

Tonye Cole, the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has accused Governor Nyesom Wike’s led Peoples Democratic Social gathering (PDP) of using the anti-democratic weapon of threats to non-indigenes, which was handsomely utilized in Lagos through the March 18 elections by the ruling celebration to suppress voters from voting. A state of affairs that resulted in all types of voter apathy for concern of life. 

In a press convention issued on Tuesday at Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, Cole, accompanied by Sobomabo Jackrich and Tonte Ibraye, governorship candidates of the Nationwide Rescue Motion and African Democratic Congress, accused the PDP of subverting the desire of the individuals—a state of affairs he known as a rape of democracy.

“As a substitute of this election to be a check of the candidate’s reputation, it turned out to be a rape of democracy,” he mentioned. “Regulation-abiding residents had been topic to flogging, verbal abuse, and threats to lives for selecting to vote APC.”

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He mentioned that in most polling models’ individuals had been instructed to not vote for any political celebration besides the PDP.

“Individuals had been instructed to vote for PDP and nothing else; this isn’t democracy and can’t be allowed to face. The PDP aggressively intimidated non-indigenes within the state resulting in apathy and low voter turnout,” he added. 

Cole’s claims additionally corroborated reviews by some election observers, each native and overseas, who reported the deaths of voters who, because the APC governorship candidate claimed had been killed as a result of they resisted “the hijack of election supplies.”

“The unhappy story of the brutal homicide of our Ahoada West Native Authorities Space coordinator, Chisom Lennard, and two others in his neighborhood will proceed to harm me for all times. 

“To assume that as much as 11 individuals have misplaced their lives on this charade, together with a youth corper serving on nationwide responsibility as an Advert Hoc employees in Ahoada, is extraordinarily miserable and heartbreaking,” he defined.

Earlier than the March 18 elections, data that made the rounds on social media revealed that the governor had promised to crush all opposition events within the state. “The Rivers State PDP led by the governor saved to his promise of crushing the opposition through the elections,” he mentioned. “Honourable Charles Anyawu and Emeka Ede, each Home of Meeting candidates, had been arrested on the day of the election and detained in police custody.” 

Because of the enormity of all of the claims, the APC candidate known as for the entire cancellation of the end result that declared Fubara Simi because the winner of the March 18 governorship election and returned governor-elect.

He promised to reclaim his stolen mandate on the court docket of regulation. 

They requested the worldwide neighborhood to sanction Governor Wike, his household, and his allies and stop them from leaving the nation.