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Rivers Election: Police Worked With PDP To Rig – Peterside

The candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State, Dakuku Peterside, has alleged that the police worked in concert with the Peoples Democratic … Continue reading Rivers Election: Police Worked With PDP To Rig – Peterside


Dakuku PetersideThe candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State, Dakuku Peterside, has alleged that the police worked in concert with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to rig the governorship election of April 11.

Mr Peterside told Channels Television on Monday that there was no governorship election in Rivers State, claiming it was marred by “violence of unimaginable dimension” that led to the death of 13 persons.

“On April 11 terror was visited on Rivers’ people. Violence of unimaginable dimension.

“We lost 13 souls, with several other persons injured and many of them found themselves in different hospitals.

“Nobody can say that there was election in Rivers State.

“We knew all along that a good number of policemen in Rivers State were compromised,” he stressed.

The governorship candidate of the APC claimed that what was witnessed in Rivers State on Election Day did not substantially comply with the rules of the process.

He explained that days before the election, there was intimidation of high degree, with sporadic gunshots in some areas that lasted for over 17 hours (from 5:00pm on April 10 to 9:00am the next day).

“It would have been impossible for anybody to hold election under that condition.”

Mr Peterside further said that there were other election malpractices that marred the process.

“Hoodlums hijacked ballot boxes at different areas. I did not see any result from the polling unit where I voted and some other polling units.

“The PDP recruited hoodlums because they had the intention to intimidate people.

“Card readers were by-passed deliberately in at least 90 per cent of the polling booths in Rivers State,” he said.

Asked why the electoral body could have allowed people to vote without accreditation with the card read, after the Independent National Electoral Commission had issued a statement insisting on the use of card readers, he said so many persons in the electoral commission had no reputation.

Mr Peterside further said he was consulting with party leaders and that they would come out with a position soon.

“One thing that we are sure of is that this can’t stand. The level of electoral fraud this time was much. We have never had it in this form before,” he emphasised.