Amaechi Accuses Patience Jonathan of Pressurising INEC to Rig Rivers Guber Polls

The Governor of Rivers State, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Amaechi, has accused First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, of  putting pressure on INEC’s Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in the state, Gesila Khan, to rig Saturday’s  Governorship and House of Assembly elections in favour of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

At a town hall meeting at the Dr Obi Wali International Conference Centre, Port Harcourt, the state capital, Amaechi said the first lady, who arrived Rivers State on Wednesday, had been holding series of meetings with senior officers of the security agencies including the REC, Khan.

Amaechi said: “The wife of the president has been holding series of meetings in her house aimed at influencing the outcome of the election. We will resist it. We will not allow what happened during the presidential election to happen again. Mrs Jonathan cannot choose a governor for us. Rivers people have the right to choose who should be their governor.

“Let the wife of the president remain in her house. She should not foist a candidate on us. We the people of Rivers State will decide who our next governor will be. The president’s wife brought militants back to Rivers State so that they can be used to rig election. We will chase away the militants after the election.”

The governor called on all to be vigilant and added that members of the All Progressives Congress (APC), would not vote in all the 23 local governments if they do not see the result sheets.

 “We will not vote if we don’t see the result sheets. Ask the INEC officials for the result sheets. If they fail to produce them, then form a human ring round the INEC officials and together with the security men escort the ad-hoc staff to the local government headquarters and lodge your complaints. But make sure nobody votes in any unit that cannot produce the original result sheets. We will not accept photocopies.”

“We will do what we do in our village: we call it the Obima formula. Our youths usually lock down the village. No one comes in and no one goes out. I am pleading that INEC should not endanger the lives of its staff by holding on to the original result sheets,” Amaechi said.