The All Progressives Congress (APC) has said it holds the Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, responsible for the politically-motivated killings in the state.
The acting National Chairman of the party, Chief Segun Oni, while addressing journalists in Abuja, on Wednesday said, “As chief security officer of the state, we hold the governor responsible for what is happening in the state. He has to sit up.”
Chief Oni alleged that utterances credited to the governor ahead of the upcoming rerun in the state have turned the state into a battle ground flowing with blood of the innocent. “Rivers State has been turned into a killing field, with APC members being murdered on a daily basis”, he said.
The party noted that the violence was directly linked to the March 19, 2016 Rivers State rerun into the National Assembly and state House of Assembly.
Oni added, “On Saturday night, March 5, 2016, masked gunmen first shot dead Franklin Obi, the APC ward chairman in Omoku, headquarters of Ogab/Egbema/Ndoni council and then beheaded him. The gunmen went ahead and killed his wife and 18-year-old son, Bestman.
“The APC NWC also received reports that four APC members were recently killed in Obibi, Etche Local Government Areas in Rivers State. Gabriel Cookey was clubbed to death in Opobo, Opobo/Nkoro council. In the last two weeks, over 30 APC members had been killed in different parts of the state.”
The APC described the security situation in Rivers State as clearly an affront to the Federal Government’s power to protect life and property within its territory.
It insisted that contrary to claims by the state government that the killings were as a result of cult-related violence, the killings were politically-motivated.
In his reaction, Governor Nyesom Wike described the allegations as “baseless, irresponsible and out of tune with the realities on the ground.”
