Amaechi, Malami Plotting To Void Rivers Elections, PDP Alleges

The national leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)
has fingered the Minister of Transportation Rotimi Amaechi and
Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami in an alleged plot to void the
March 9 Rivers State governorship election.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had
declared Governor Nyesom Wike of the PDP winner of the election,
after weeks of suspending collation of the results of the
governorship election.

But at a media briefing in Abuja on Sunday, spokesman for the
PDP, Kola Ologbondiyan, raised the alarm, alerting of alleged plots
by Amaechi and Malami to trigger constitutional crisis in the
state.

According to the PDP, the two Ministers have been allegedly
mounting pressure on the Acting Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN),
Justice Tanko Mohammed to void the election.

The main opposition party alleged the two Ministers are
allegedly working on the CJN to reverse the February 12, 2019 final
judgment of the Supreme Court upholding the exclusion of the
governing All Progressives Congress (APC) from the Rivers
election.

The trial court had earlier ruled the Rivers APC out of
participating in the 2019 National Assembly, governorship and state
assembly elections following the nullification of the party’s
flawed primaries in the three categories of election.

By implication of the apex court’s ruling, the APC was barred
from fielding candidates for the three categories of election in
Rivers.

Based on the ruling of the apex court, INEC had excluded the
Rivers APC from the ballots in the 2019 federal legislative,
governorship and state assembly polls.

The PDP is worried by the prospects of Amaechi and Malami
succeeding in having the entire elections in Rivers state voided by
the Supreme Court and the possibility of the apex court reversing
its earlier judgment and ordering the conduct of fresh elections in
the state to accommodate the APC.

It said: “Nigerians can also recall how the APC, having been
frustrated by its lawful exclusion, used compromised security
agents to violently disrupt the smooth conduct of elections in
Rivers State.

“In the course of the elections, the APC however adopted the
governorship candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC),
bankrolled his election and made compromised security agents and
thugs available to him, with the view to using them to muscle
votes.

“In spite of these conspiracies by the APC, the will of the
people of Rivers state prevailed, as they braved the odds, resisted
all machinations and voted overwhelmingly for the PDP and all its
candidates.

“The spontaneous jubilation in Rivers State and across the
country, in addition to the general outpouring of goodwill to
Governor Wike and other candidates of the PDP on their victory,
clearly demonstrates the PDP popularity and acceptance not only by
the people of Rivers, but also by lovers of democracy all over
world.

“However, not done with the desperation to cause confusion and
crisis in Rivers state, the leader of the APC in the state;
Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi, has engaged in fresh
conspiracies to subvert the will of the people as expressed at the
polls.

“The PDP has information of how Rotimi Amaechi has been going
around in Rivers State, giving assurances that he has the ears of
the Supreme Court under the leadership of Acting CJN, Justice Tanko
Mohammed, and that the Supreme Court will reverse its final
judgment on APC primaries and create the way for fresh elections in
Rivers State, in which the APC will be allowed to participate.

“Rotimi Amaechi goes about boasting that the apex court in the
land, the Supreme Court, will reverse itself and order for fresh
conduct of all the elections in Rivers State”.

The PDP described the alleged scheming by the two cabinet
Ministers as completely reprehensible and unthinkable in a
democratic process.