Killers of APC Supporters in Rivers will Not Go Unpunished, Says Amaechi

PDP faults claim of attacks, killings

Ernest Chinwo All those involved in the brutal killing of supporters of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State during the electioneering period will face the full weight of the law, Rivers State Governor, Chibuike Amaechi has said.

Amaechi made the disclosure on Monday when he paid a condolence visit on the families of the late Chief Christopher Adube in Obirikom, Ogba-Egbema-Ndoni local government area of the state.

Adube, alongside three of his children, his younger brother, lyke Ikechukwu and his two gatemen were shot dead last Friday in his Obrikom residence while two of his children who were wounded by bullet shots are receiving treatment at an undisclosed hospital.

Amaechi assured the bereaved family that his administration would fish out the killers and prosecute them accordingly.

“All those responsible for this bloody act will pay for it. This kind of killing of APC supporters has gone beyond political violence. Why should politicians go beyond politicking and try to take any body’s life? They will pay for this, I promise to fish out the culprits,” he promised

Earlier during his door-to-door sensitisation tour to wards in Khana local government area, Amaechi promised that votes for the April 11 governorship elections in the state would count at every polling units.

While addressing a crowd of APC supporters in Bani, Bean KenKhana, Kaani-babee, Nwiyakara, Kono-Boue, Uegwere-Boue, Zaakpor, Kaani and Opu-oko communities, Amaechi frowned at the electoral fraud and rigging of the last presidential election results by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and warned that any criminally- minded person who attempts to deprive Rivers people from exercising their legitimate franchise would be made to face the full weight of the law.

According to him, “We are all eyewitnesses to what happened during the last presidential election where the PDP carried out electoral fraud with INEC officers and the police. But now, the police or the military will not harass you again. I came to thank you all for refusing to vote without result. I called one of my friends in the army and cautioned him about the last election and the victory of Buhari, he told me on phone that, ‘Sir, Parade has changed gear.’ What it means is that, supporters of APC will no longer be molested and harassed by the police or the military. Everybody can come out and exercise their franchise. Ensure that, your party agents are at every polling unit, at least 50 persons per unit, wait after accreditation and voting before allowing the party agents to follow the results to the collection centres. Our votes for the guber election will count at the polling units and recorded in the result sheets,” Amaechi said.

The state Chief Executive also urged Rivers people and the people of Khana in particular to massively turn out for the guber elections this Saturday and vote for the governorship standard bearer of the All Progressive Congress, Dr. Dakuku Adol-Peterside.

Meanwhile, the state chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP),has faulted claims by the leadership of the APC that its members in the state have been subjected to continued attacks and were being killed by the PDP.

This came as the APC House of Representatives candidate in Obio/Akpor local government and former Chief of Staff, Government House, Chief Tony Okocha, has raised an alarm that key people in the PDP had sent assassins after him.

The PDP, in a statement issued in Port Harcourt yesterday by Mr. Jerry Needam, special adviser, media, to the state Party Chairman, Mr. Felix Obuah, said it “notes with surprise that the APC leaders and Governor Chibuike Amaechi who have overtly carried out regular release of hardened criminals from prisons and detention in the state and have been ostensibly engaged as snipers and political mercenaries, trailing the APC political opponents, will turn around to blackmail law-abiding members of the PDP, linking them to alleged death cases in the state.”

The statement said the PDP views such allegations by APC National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed, and APC gubernatorial candidate, Dr. Dakuku Peterside, of the killing of APC members in Rivers State as “flawed, unfounded and outright blackmail.”