APC denounces Rivers LG election, declares support for Wike

The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State, led by Chief Tony Okocha, has declared that there were no local Government elections in the state, saying nobody can destroy the party and supporters of the Minister of Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike.

Okocha condemned an explosion at the APC secretariat along Aba Road in Port Harcourt on Saturday morning, accusing the State government led by Governor Siminalayi Fubara of being behind the attack.

The APC chieftain spoke shortly after a protest march by anti-election groups who visited the explosion site of the party’s secretariat.

An explosion from a device suspected to be dynamite rocked the APC secretariat in the early hours of the local government election, with one of the gates of the secretariat pulled down while buildings inside the office were damaged

The doors, windows, and other property were destroyed, as well as the windows of a two-storey building.

He noted that he woke up to see that his mobile was being inundated with calls about the incident and questioned the motive of the people behind the attack.

Okocha said, “The point to make or to emphasise is the fact that the APC is under attack in River State and this attack is very unnecessary and uncalled for.

“Luckily, some of you were here with us yesterday (Friday) when we briefed the press to remind Nigerians that there is a court judgement. It’s not a court order. It’s not an interim order of the court. It is not an ex parte.

“There’s a court order in a matter that passed through the processes and the judgement was reached. And in that judgement, the court was clear that the election slated for today did not comply with the constitution and the laws of the state.”

“And that to that extent, it was declared illegal. You can see too that the same judgment barred the police, barred DSS from participating. Imagine where the police are not part of the election. Imagine where the DSS is also not part of our election. So how do we secure, how are we sure of the security of people?

“So, this morning we woke up at 3:30 precisely. My phone kept ringing and ringing and ringing. When I picked up it was my admin notifying me that our office had been attacked with explosives.”

Okocha noted that the police had visited the scene of the incident and also disclosed that members of the party were being hunted by security operatives, saying, “The luck we had was that the one they threw at this particular spot did not detonate. If not this building would have gone down.

“You can see the impact. This one was the second attempt. After they did the first one, they came back the second time to set this building ablaze.

“Look at this one too, they also came here, the main office proper, to see how they can set the place on fire. We just thank goodness. This structure is not our own. It’s a rented apartment. And what do you think some people will be feeling right now?

“So we want to tell Nigerians that we are under attack. Our citizens, our leaders, differently are chased by their soldiers. When I say soldiers, I’m talking about uniformed soldiers.

“That’s what I’m talking about. They are chasing us everywhere. And we are not budging. So what they felt they would do is to come and destroy our party secretariat.”