APC Begs Buhari To Revisit Rivers Political Killings During Elections

The Rivers State chapter of All Progressives Congress, APC, has pleaded with President Muhammadu Buhari to urgently begin a probe into the killings in the state before and during the 2015 general elections.
It also urged the president to order an investigation into the alleged intimidation of its witnesses at the state governorship elections petition tribunal sitting in Abuja.
The Rivers APC chairman, Dr. Davies Ikanya, in a statement issued in Port Harcourt on Sunday, lamented that the current administration in the state by Chief Nyesom Wike, had not been able to probe the killings linked to the last election.
“His (Wike) government has not made any effort at bringing the perpetrators of these horrid crimes to book, perhaps because of the alleged involvement of his core supporters in those cold-blooded murders.
“In the light of the above, we are very disturbed by the persistent threats to the lives of our witnesses. Photos of the APC witnesses were posted on Facebook by a group known as The Youth Coalition for Good Governance.
“They held a demonstration and tagged our witnesses with all sorts of unprintable names and accused them of being saboteurs. Today, these men live in hiding and can no longer do their businesses freely to sustain their families”, the party said.
The Rivers APC recalled that a petition had already been sent to President Buhari and security agencies on the murder of 97 persons in the state by a group known as the Greater Together Organisation.
The statement noted that the petition captured the threat and current insecurity in Rivers and the lukewarm attitude of the governor over this sad situation.
“It is a cause for concern that in spite of local and international condemnations that followed the violence-ridden elections in Rivers State held on 28th March and 11th April, the security agencies are not known to have investigated, arrested or prosecuted anyone for the murder and arson unleashed on innocent Nigerians, whose only offence was to belong to and support a political party of their choice, as enshrined in the Nigerian constitution.
“However, on assumption of office, Chief Nyesom Wike procured a court judgment barring the constituted Chidi Odinkalu Commission of Inquiry. This desperate action by Chief Wike and the Peoples Democratic Party denied the people justice”, Rivers APC said.
It stated that Odinkalu Commission had earlier unraveled 97 cases of murder, 278 incidents of persons with bodily harms, 83 cases of total destruction of properties.
It, however, appealed to President Buhari to hasten to make good his promise to Rivers people on 13th May, 2015, when he vowed to revisit the issue.
The party also expressed the need for the Prof. Odinkalu Commission of Inquiry report to be revisited urgently, even as it urged security agencies to take measures to guarantee the safety of the witnesses testifying at the various elections petition tribunals.