Okafor Ofiebor/Port Harcourt

Nyesom Wike: Supreme Court verdict based on the law

Governor Nyesom Wike  has  berated  the Rivers APC Governorship Candidate, Dr.Dakuku Peterside as childish over his comment imputing some underhand dealings in the election verdict announced by the Supreme Court on 27 January.

At a press conference in Port Harcourt on Tuesday night, commissioner for information, Dr Austin Tam-George, who spoke on behalf of the government condemned Peterside and his  party  for  attempting to damage the integrity  of  the  Supreme Court  simply  because  they   lost a verdict  on  the  principles  of  the  electoral act and the constitution.

The State Government  also stated that the APC Governorship candidate and his   party  are worried about Governor Wike’s  warning to election  riggers because  they have perfected the plot to rig and steal the mandate of the Rivers people during  the  rerun  legislative elections.

Tam-George  regretted that “Dakuku  Peterside  could exhibit his incoherent character to the level of spewing falsehood and irresponsible  propaganda  against  the  judiciary and the Supreme Court which sustains  democracy  and  good governance.”

He   described  as unfortunate and demeaning the false allegation  that Governor  Wike  influenced the Supreme Court judgement.

According to Tam-George: “Rotimi Amaechi, Dakuku’s mentor is known to have a reputation of boasting about judicial verdicts before they are given.  See the publication on page 11 of the Nigerian Pilot of Monday January 25 2016 by Abia Justice Forum.  Rotimi Amaechi has never bothered to deny any of the allegations credited to him in the publication.

The Rivers Commissioner for Information asked: Why did Governor Wike lose his appeal to the Supreme Court on the issue of proper venue where the Rivers State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal should sit? “After all, the distinguished Honourable Justice Mary Odili was on that seven-man panel of the Justices of the Supreme Court that dismissed Governor Wike’s appeal.

Then, “there was nothing fundamentally wrong with the Supreme Court”.

“Now that she was not even on the panel that heard the Rivers State Governorship appeal, she is accused of interference. We ask again, was Justice Odili also the one that influenced Akwa Ibom, Ogun, Delta, Abia, and other States’ Governorship appeal at the Supreme Court?”

He said what Wike meant by the advice  given by Dr. Peter Odili,  a medical practitioner and leader of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Rivers State was purely fatherly which Governor Wike took . And the advice served him well unlike Dr. Dakuku Peterside and his master Rotimi Amaechi who never sought  wise Counsel or allow themselves to be guided by wise counsel.

“Moreover, Governor Wike just took a trip down memory lane naming many persons who assisted him on his route to victory. He never named Honourable Justice Mary Odili as one of such persons. He named Dr. Peter Odili CON. Why pick on the noble Justice?”

On Governor Wike’s threat to INEC official on assignment in the state,Tam-George explained: ” The Governor knew that given the level of support he has in Rivers State, the determination of the APC to win Rivers State at all cost in order to have at least one oil producing state in its kitty and the will of Rivers people and Niger Deltans to resist the rigging overtly threatened by the APC to procure victory,  there surely would be violent in the event of a re-run.

“As a patriotic son of Rivers State and the Niger Delta, Governor Wike chose to sacrifice his ambition in order that defenceless Rivers People and Niger Deltans may live along the lines of the Jonathanian philosophy that his ambition is not worth any persons’ blood. We ask, what is wrong with such a noble sacrifice? Must Dr. Dakuku and Mr. Amaechi in their thirst for blood refuse to see nobility in self sacrifice?”
“Dr. Dakuku Peterside and his APC have not accepted the Supreme Court verdict and would do anything to destroy the Supreme Court and the integrity of its Justices for daring to uphold existing jurisprudence.

” The attack on Governor Wike who merely warned that nobody should come to Rivers State to rig elections is contrived to misinform and create confusion so that the APC would, as promised by their National Chairman to Dakuku Peterside, forcefully intervene in Rivers State by means of election rigging in order to win all the seats up for re-election in the State Assembly with a view to impeaching Governor Wike”, the commissioner said.

The Rivers State Government  also debunked the accusation that Governor  Wike   insulted President  Buhari and the gallant military.