The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State has expressed outrage over the alleged assassination attempt on the Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr. Dakuku Peterside, the State APC Chairman, Dr. Davies Ibiamu Ikanya, and the deputy governorship candidate of the party in the April 2015 elections, Hon. Asita O. Asita. The trio reportedly narrowly escaped death on Sunday afternoon after Peterside’s vehicle in which they were travelling from the Port Harcourt International Airport was attacked by gunmen in two utility vehicles said to belong to Emeka Woke, Chief of Staff to Governor Nyesom Wike. A statement Sunday night by Peterside’s Spokesman Sylvester Asoya said they survived by making a quick detour to the nearby office of the Department of State Service (DSS) to seek refuge.

“This brazen attempt to snuff out the lives of three key leaders of Rivers APC is outrageous, an affront and condemnable,” the party said in a statement even as it thanked God for safeguarding Peterside, Ikanya and Asita.

Rivers APC in the statement issued Monday in Port Harcourt held Governor Wike responsible for the assassination attempt, calling on relevant security agencies to quickly arrest and interrogate him and to hasten to bring the full weight of the law on all those involved in the dastardly act. The party said: “We have often cried out about Wike’s bloodthirstiness but, unfortunately, nothing was done to keep him in check. Before last weekend’s State and National Assembly rerun elections in the State, we had openly cried out following Wike’s open threats on the lives of President Muhammadu Buhari, Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai, and Minister of Transportation, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi. Those who thought we were shouting wolf where one does not exist now know better.

“On the day of the rerun election, 19th March, 2016 the strategy of Chief Wike dressing his gang of killers in police and military uniforms was duly exposed when his Special Assistant on Special Projects, Mr. Cyril Dum Wite, was caught with N40 million, arms, police and army uniforms in his car. We were not surprised because to install Wike as a Governor, 100 APC members had to be sent to their early graves. In the countdown to the rerun elections, an army major and two soldiers, as well as an Immigration Officer, were killed in Wike’s desperation to install his stooges as members of National and State Assemblies. Also, an APC chieftain was beheaded with his wife and his son killed. Another APC chieftain was buried alive while yet another was burnt alive.

“Now that Chief Wike has fully crossed the line by attempting to snuff out the lives of our leaders in broad daylight, we call on the relevant security agencies to move in quickly to interrogate him and to bring the full weight of the law on his killer gang. Wike is being emboldened by the immunity he enjoys as Governor but he does not enjoy immunity from interrogation for murder-related crimes.”

Rivers APC alleged that Wike in only ten months in office is fast turning Rivers State into another Somalia. “He is attempting to dwarf other evil and satanic regimes such as those of Mobutu Sese Seko, Emperor Jean Bedel Bokassa and Idi Amin Dada known for displaying optimum barbarism. Wike now hunts his opponents like a game, with many beheaded, clubbed to death or buried alive like chicken. All these have further exposed Wike as being grossly unfit to occupy the exalted office of Governor. We hereby plead with the Federal Government to rescue us from Wike’s hands before he turns Rivers into a failed State,” the party said.

It dismissed the rerun election as “a sham, charade where PDP hoodlums had a free day intimidating voters to vote only PDP candidates or get killed with the police looking the other way in order to secure their lives.”

•Photo shows Governor Wike.

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