‘INEC chairman should stop doing Wike’s bidding on Rivers APC candidacy’

A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the South-South zone, Eze Chukwuemeka Eze, has asked the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, to stop doing the bidding of Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, on Rivers APC candidacy for this year’s general elections.

Eze, yesterday in Port Harcourt, urged the INEC chairman, who was reportedly the Director of Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND), when Wike, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), was the Minister of State for Education in the Goodluck Jonathan’s administration, to free himself from the entanglement of bias.

Yakubu was admonished not to allow misleading interpretations of court rulings on Rivers elections to put him in judicial troubles.

Eze said: “There is no judgment of the Supreme Court that bars Rivers APC from fielding candidates in the 2019 general elections. INEC chairman is allowing himself to be misled and used by enemies of true democracy, to deny candidates of the party (APC) from participating in the elections, and prevent Rivers people from having the opportunity of voting for candidates of their choice.

”It is unfortunate that despite the rulings of the Court of Appeal, Port Harcourt and the Supreme Court, the names of candidates of APC have not been published by INEC for the purpose of participating in the 2019 general elections.

”I call on the electoral commission, as a law-abiding institution, to without delay, publish the names of candidates of APC in Rivers State for the 2019 general election, as submitted by the APC.

”The enemies of democracy that are bent of ensuring that Rivers APC is not reflected in the ballot during the February 23 and March 9 polls are out to frustrate the re-election of President Muhammadu Buhari, by weakening the APC’s structure in Rivers State and causing members of the main opposition party to be disillusioned, thereby leading to apathy.”

The APC chieftain also urged the Rivers electorate, especially the party faithful, to stay focused and ignore the propaganda of PDP and the INEC collaborators.

Eze admonished party loyalists to come out en masse and vote for President Buhari and other candidates of APC.

Meanwhile, the lawmaker representing Rivers Southeast Senatorial District, Senator Magnus Abe, has said that he and 42 allies, who lost on Thursday at the appellate court in Port Harcourt, will approach the Supreme Court for proper interpretation of the merits of their suit for declaration, that, they should be affirmed as authentic candidates of APC in Rivers.

Abe said, yesterday in Port Harcourt, that, ”There is need to ensure that justice and equity prevail for Rivers APC members who participated in a lawful process, but were wrongfully excluded from the polls.”

The senator, who was Secretary to the Rivers State Government (SSG) in the administration of Rotimi Amaechi, now Transportation Minister, also urged Nigerians to massively vote for President Muhammadu Buhari and other candidates of APC.

He noted, that, there was the need for Rivers people and other Nigerians to conduct themselves in a peaceful manner before, during and after the 2019 general elections, while backing President Buhari’s directive to the military and police to deal decisively with ballot box snatchers and other miscreants who might attempt to disrupt the elections.