Stop Behaving Like Touts, Accept Defeat, PDP Tells Rivers APC Leaders

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Rivers State chapter says it received the report of the protest by leaders of the State chapter of the All Progressives Congress, APC, led by Mr. Dakuku Peterside and Magnus Abe at the INEC Headquarters in Abuja as embarrassing to the State and show of frustration of the actors.

The PDP strongly condemns what it describes as ‘touting’ by people (the APC chieftains) who are supposed to at least respect themselves, even though they lost in the elections, believing that losing election is not the end of life, and that embarking on such action at the INEC headquarters in Abuja clearly confirms that Mr. Dakuku and his party men are irresponsible, desperate, frustrated, losing grip of events and have therefore, resorted to civil disturbance.

The Party views this particular action and many others by the APC leaders as undeserving, unwarranted noise making and much ado without noting necessitating it.

On the claim that the protest was mainly participated in by various candidates of the APC in the last elections in the State, the PDP observes that certain persons, including the former Information Commissioner, Ibim Semenitari, and other unknown faces, obviously thugs, were seen in the footage of the event, describing the APC claim as false, deceptive and one of their usual propaganda.

The PDP is of the view that the APC leaders have several civilized means to ventilate legitimate claims, if any, in the State, without embarrassing themselves and the State in far away Abuja, appealing to them to accept the reality of the victory of Governor Nyesom Wike and the PDP in the State and join hands to move the State forward.

The PDP unequivocally bemoans the hiring of thugs from Rivers State to Abuja to cause havoc and to draw cheap attention and sympathy to what does not exist, calling on officials of INEC to beware of the actions of the APC leaders, who are only embarking on a mission to blackmail officials of the Abuja headquarters like in the case of Ghesila Khan and others of the Port Harcourt office of the Commission.

We do not see any justification for such mob action by the APC leaders and thugs in Abuja, and therefore call on the President and other relevant authorities to prevail on the party and its members, particularly in Rivers State, to desist from acts capable of igniting crisis and anarchy in the State and the nation.

We further appeal to our brothers in the APC to act responsibly and to accept defeat and embrace the positive change (the New Rivers Vision) in the State, rather than becoming agents of retrogression and cop in the wheel of development of the State.

Jerry Needam
Special Adviser on Media and Publicity
To the Rivers PDP Chairman, Bro Felix Obuah
August 13, 2015