TAKING DESPERATION  TO LAWLESS HEIGHTS

Defeated  Rivers State APC  Governorship Candidate,  Mr Dakuku Peterside is at it again. This time he has taken his desperation  to  Abuja,  the Federal  Capital.  He has once again,  exposed yet another  reason  why the people of Rivers  State  resolved that he lacks the credentials  to govern the complex state in need of urgent development.

After heaping insults on members of the  local government  caretaker   committees and lying against  PDP  members  in  the  state, Dakuku Peterside  flew to Abuja to do the unthinkable. Alongside  renowned  Nollywood  Actor,  Magnus Abe and other defeated APC  candidates  in the last general  elections,  they attempted to invade the INEC  headquarters  in  Abuja.

All entreaties  by security  agents  at the INEC  headquarters  fell on deaf ears as Dakuku  Peterside  and his co-travellers  insisted  on forcefully gaining  entry into the premises for illegal  reasons. When it became  clear to the security  agents that these desperate politicians  were determined  to  cause  chaos, they had to disperse them.

Since Dakuku  Peterside lost the last governorship  election in Rivers  State,  he has employed several illegal means to create confusion  and  throw the state into crisis. He has concocted  all manner of lies to incite the people to violence and at different times  personally led hired mobs to disrupt the peace of the state.

First, he lied that no governorship  election  took place. With state funds made available  by his godfather,  Dakuku hired media agents and fake election  monitors to spread this falsehood.  At that time, Dakuku  claimed he had all the evidence  and required data to prove that the elections were rigged.

Shortly  after  that lie, Dakuku  Peterside  led hired thugs from neighbouring  states to storm INEC office in Port Harcourt.  Indeed, he sat on bare floor, crying that the elections were rigged. He did not stop there. He hired thugs to protest at the  state INEC  office  for days on end.

After they failed to stop Governor  Wike's  swearing in,  Dakuku  stayed away for weeks only to surface  with a concocted  story that local  government  chairmen  whose  elections were nullified  by the  Federal  High  Court  had been  reinstated. His intention  was to  destabilise  Rivers State,  but the good people  of  the  state  refused to  be incited.

Before  this illegal  action at INEC  headquarters on Wednesday,  Dakuku  Peterside  was in Rivers  State  where he spewed his usual falsehood  against  Governor  Wike.

The desperate  act of attempting  to invade INEC  headquarters  over a matter before an Election  Tribunal  has beyond  all reasonable  doubts shown that Dakuku  Peterside  and  Magnus  Abe were roundly  defeated. Pray, why would  a politician  who dragged the governor  to the Election  Tribunal  invade INEC  headquarters  with the aim of trying  to  circumvent  justice  and perhaps  manipulate facts?

For a man who had consistently  lied that he had all the evidence  to prosecute  his petition,  what would have led to this level of desperation?

If this event had happened  in Rivers State,  Dakuku  Peterside  and  his co-travellers  would have concocted another  lie which would have  been  circulated by their media friends. These are the same people  who  dragged a security  agency into the electoral dispute attempting to use force in their quest to coerce INEC to manipulate  electoral materials.

This is desperation taken to lawless  heights.  The  security  agencies  must not stop at dispersing Dakuku  Peterside  and  his  co-travellers.  They must be  investigated  and prosecuted. No matter the state funds they expended in sponsoring  the  APC  National  elections, they cannot be above the law.

Dakuku  Peterside  has no pedigree  of performance  to challenge  Governor  Wike. He was trounced on April  11, 2015 despite being sponsored with state funds. All these tricks and desperation will amount  to  nothing.

Written by Simeon  Nwakaudu.