APC Leaders Escape Death As Nyesom Wike’s Thugs Attack Party Registration Centres, Officials In Rivers
Thugs, who are members of the Grassroots Development Initiative(GDI) headed by the Supervising Minister of Education, Nyesom Wike yesterday stormed some registration centres of the All Progressives Congress(APC) in Rivers state and unleashed mayhem on party officials, some of who narrowly escaped death. Wike founded the GDI as a group within the PDP to spearhead his campaign for his governorship ambition in Rivers ahead of 2015.
One of the survivors of the bloody attack is the Degema local government area supervisory committee Chairman for the registration exercise, Mr Ben Orugbani who escaped death by the whiskers. His house in old Bakana area was however riddled with bullets. The heavily armed Wike thugs were said to have invaded Orugbani’s home shooting sporadically and after they discovered he had escaped, they unleashed terror on his house which they shattered with bullets.
Apart from Orugbani’s home, other areas the messengers of death visited leaving tales of woes behind include old Bakana, Tombia, all in Kalabari; Woji Ward 6, in Obio/Akpor local government area. The attack is coming on the heels of the alarm raised by the APC on Tuesday that, PDP, through the GDI was hatching plan to attack APC members who will be taking part in the registration exercise.
Reacting to the incident, Eze Chukwuemeka Eze, the Senior Special Aide on Media and Public Affairs to the State Chairman of APC, Dr Davies Ibiamu Ikanya, said the attack was a vindication of the party’s earlier alarm even though it did not attach so much importance to the information initially.
According to him “When we first got intelligence reports on the planned attacks, we initially did not attach much importance to it, but we were proved wrong when some of our registration officers and innocent citizens of Rivers State who turned up to be registered by APC as the exercise took off today were attacked by thugs hired by PDP and GDI. The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State notes with sadness the implementation of the plot by the Grassroots Development Initiative (GDI), the political machinery of Supervising Minister for Education, Barrister Nyesom Wike, and some PDP Stakeholders, to unleash mayhem and disrupt APC’s membership registration exercise which started today in 4,442 political Units across the State.
“This evil plot, which was hatched during a meeting held in the house of a GDI chieftain in Obio Akpor LGA, Chief Timothy Nsirim, where GDI and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leaders were directed to ensure that our registration centres are attacked within days of this exercise and were assured that the police had been fully briefed and would not intervene.
“In this regard, APC Rivers is calling on the good people of the state, not to be intimidated as they have the right to register and freely associate with any political party of their choice – APC in this case. While we direct our registration officers to carry on with the exercise without fear, we call on the police to protect our registration officers and the innocent citizens, who wish to register with our great party from the hands of these hoodlums, who think that politics is all about violence and intimidation. We at the same time wish to warn GDI and PDP to have a rethink and avoid pushing us to the wall as nobody or group has the monopoly of violence.”
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