Rivers State Government claims strategy by APC to rig re-run elections via military invasion

The Rivers State Government has condemned as inflammatory and reckless a report made by the Acting National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr Segun Oni, who alleged that Governor Nyesom Wike was responsible for the recent violence in Rivers State.

In a report issued by the Rivers State Commissioner for Information and Communication, Dr Austin Tam-George, the State Government denied any involvement in the cult-related violence that has claimed some lives in certain sections of the state.

Dr Tam-George said the APC’s reckless and false allegations were part of a plan to incite the military and other security forces against the people of Rivers State. ‘It is a crude plan to militarize the state and use the security forces to steal the results of the forthcoming re-run elections’, the commissioner said.

Dr Tam-George said investigations by the Rivers State police command have since revealed that the recent deaths arose from retributive attacks launched by rival cult gangs fighting for supremacy. The police have since arrested some key culprits who have made useful statements, the commissioner emphasized.

"The attempt by the APC to appropriate every dead person in River State as their member might mean that the APC is in fact the sponsor of these satanic cult clashes, all in an attempt to destabilize the Wike administration," the commissioner said