Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State on Monday dismissed claims that he moved about with soldiers intimidating people and influencing voting and collation of votes.
POLITICS NIGERIA reports that in a statement by Chris Finebone, the state Commissioner for Information and Communications, the report “is indeed a lie taken from the very abyss of hell”.
This newspaper reports that Governor Wike has been at loggerheads with his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and had allegedly instructed his loyalists to vote for the opposition in the 2023 presidential election. The official final result of Rivers State is still being awaited.
The statement reads: “It has come to the attention of Rivers State Government that certain individuals have undertaken to conduct a campaign of calumny against the person of the Executive Governor of Rivers State, His Excellency, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, CON, GSSRS, Life Bencher, utilizing all forms of doctored and false audio and visual materials and circulating same particularly over the internet.
“Of particular mention is a doctored audio clip that was concocted by Saharareporters during the 2016 re-run election in Rivers State in which they purported same to be a discussion between the governor and Hon. Dum Dekor. That audio concoction was duly discredited and discarded as a piece of rubbish masterminded by evil people to tarnish the image of Gov. Wike. But in a hurry to throw dirt at the governor this time, some people decided to exhume and use same old discredited clip to justify their evil machination of sullying the image of the governor.
“Let it be clearly stated that after Gov. Wike and his wife managed to cast their vote last Saturday, they quietly returned to their home and never stepped out for the rest of the day. It was, therefore, surprising that the same individuals who, for reasons best known to them, decided to lie against the governor, have gone ahead to raise false accusations suggesting that Gov. Wike moved about with soldiers intimidating people and influencing voting and collation of votes. This is, indeed, a lie taken from the very abyss of hell.
“For the avoidance of doubt, Gov. Wike does not have a single soldier in his formal and informal entourage at any time, more so, during election time. The governor did not for whatever reason visit or move around after casting his vote. The accusation of him moving around to intimidate or cause any disruption of any kind derives only from the wicked imagination of evil doers but they have failed.
“Therefore, the general public is, by this press statement, urged to disregard the concocted video and audio clips, voice notes and other forms of multimedia contraptions to tarnish the image of Gov. Nyesom Wike.”
