Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike in an interactive session with newsmen on Sunday, said that most military men deployed for the elections were used by APC leaders to hijack materials and that they also illegally arrested PDP members in other to manipulate the process.
He said that the people resisted the attempt by the military to subvert the election process.
“Remember I warned that today’s Nigeria is not like yesterday’s Nigeria. Things that were done wrongly before cannot be done wrongly now. I warned that the people will resist any attempt to rig,” he said.
He said that it was unfortunate that the military has been reduced to this level when they will be used against public interest.
He said the number of military men unleashed to intimidate and harass Rivers people is regrettable as they failed to tackle security challenges.
“Now they have the federal might, army, police, INEC and DSS but we have the people,” Wike said.
On the conduct of the rerun legislative elections, Wike maintained that INEC was not prepared in terms of logistics and planning.
On the issue at the Mile 1 Police Station, the governor said that Mrs Ekwi Adebisa is the girlfriend of the APC candidate for the Port Harcourt Federal Constituency who framed her abduction alongside APC leaders.
Wike said his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) would win Saturday’s re-run legislative elections in the state because it prepared for it since December when the elections were annulled.
The governor confirmed that the Secretary to the State Government, Chief Kenneth Kobani and a Special Assistant, Mr Cyril Wite, were arrested by the army.
Wike said that the government officials wanted to ensure that election materials were moved to polling units when they were arrested.
He said that it would be difficult to rig elections in the state because the people would resist the attempt.
According to him, when somebody is not popular and attempts to rig the election, the people will say no to such move.
He alleged that some people were creating problems to make the Federal Government declare a state of emergency in the state.
Wike said that such ploy would not work, because the PDP was more popular in the state.
He urged the media not to be emotional or sentimental while reporting events in the state, because such stories created wrong impression.