Ahead Of Saturday Presidential Election: Rivers Women Protest Military, Police Interference
Women in Rivers State have joined in the growing outcry over plans by the Transportation Minister, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi and his cohorts in the All Progressives Congress (APC) to truncate the 2019 General Elections in the State.
Addressing a press conference at the PDP Campaign office along Aba Road in Port Harcourt on Wednesday, the women who spoke under the aegis of Rivers PDP Women said their rights to participate in free, fair and credible general elections were being trampled due to the overbearing military and police intimidations.
The Coordinator of the women, and Commissioner for Women Affairs in the State, Barr (Mrs.) Ukel Oyaghiri who read the text of the press conference decried open threats which have been publicly made by the Transportation Minister and other chieftains of APC in the State.
She recalled that these APC elements boasted during a world press conference on January 23, 2019 that no National Assembly, Governorship and State House of Assembly elections would hold in Rivers State.
Barr. Oyaghiri again pointed out the threat issued by the Transportation Minister during the APC Presidential rally in Port Harcourt to the effect that he would ‘deal with’ Governor Nyesom Wike and the PDP, a threat which she said was followed by a popular war song rendered in Igbo language.
“Amaechi sang and danced in the presence of the President, Mohammadu Buhari who watched him and did nothing”, she said.
The Women Coordinator further disclosed that another APC chieftain, Prince Tonye Princewill reaffirmed his earlier threat that APC would disrupt, cause havoc and prevent the general elections in Rivers State, quoting his exact words: ‘…I still see disaster come Saturday. Unless we’re on the ballot, the election won’t be smooth anywhere…’
More worrisome, according to the women, is the mum lips being maintained by the Presidency and security agencies in the face of these threats, describing it as a development that is carefully targeted to thwart the elections.
Barr. Oyaghiri also recalled the ignoble actions of soldiers and policemen who on Friday, February 15, 2019 barred thousands of Rivers people from entering their communities 12 hours before the set time for movement restriction.
The women further expressed concern over the deployment of the Commander of SARS, Akin Fakorede to the State, knowing his antecedents in the re-run elections in Rivers State.
While also condemning the President’s order to security operatives to maim or shoot suspected ballot box snatchers during the elections, the women said the order is tantamount to promoting extra-judicial killings.
They urged President Buhari and the international community to call theTransportation Minister and other APC chieftains in Rivers State to order while also demanding the immediate withdrawal of military men who are illegally occupying the property of Chief Ferdinand Alabraba in Abonnema.
