The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State yesterday said there might be bloodletting and that elections will not hold in the state if the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) fails to include its candidates in the ballot papers.
It warned that INEC and the judiciary were to blame for any bloodletting that may happen in the state during the election, insisting that it will not allow the polls to hold as things stand.
Spokesman of APC candidates who were disqualified by a Federal High Court, Henry Odili , told journalists yesterday in Port Harcourt that INEC’s exclusion of their name was unlawful.
Justice Kolawole Omotosho of Federal High Court, Port Harcourt had on January 7, 2019, while delivering judgement on two separate suits filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Senator Magnus Abe, ordered INEC not to include APC candidates on the ballot in the elections.
In the ruling, he said this was because a Rivers State High Court had nullified APC’s congresses and primaries in the state.
The candidates accused INEC of conspiring with Governor Nyesom Wike to disfranchise Rivers people from freely choosing their representatives at the polls, saying such move was an invitation to anarchy, which should be avoided at all costs.
But Commissioner of Information and Communications, Emma Okah, refuted APC’s claim that Governor Wike had a hand in the party’s predicament.
Okah said the allegation that Wike colluded with INEC to disfranchise Rivers people was spurious, as APC was suffering from self-inflicted problems due to its impunity, lack of respect for the judiciary, and disregard for the tenets of internal democracy.
“Wike is not a member of APC. He never asked the APC to disobey court orders or refuse to resolve their internal problems. Tonye Cole is running when nothing is chasing him. He knows what he did in the APC with his master that gave rise to crisis that enveloped the party.
“Cole’s lamentation is understandable and pathetic but can somebody tell him that a bad workman will always quarrel with his tools. He does not need to lose sleep as Wike will beat him thoroughly in any governorship contest any day,” he added.