.Accuses him of holding secret meetings with judges before verdict *..His allegation, aimed at inciting presidency against Rivers people-Wike The last is yet to be heard about the concluded litigation on the Rivers State governorship election as Honourable Dakuku Peterside of the state chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has accused Governor Nyesom Wike of influencing the outcome of the judgment of the Supreme Court. Peterside, who was the APC governorship candidate in the 2015 election, made the accusation while addressing a press conference at the party state secretariat, Port Harcourt, on Tuesday. However, Governor Wike said the essence of Peterside’s allegations were aimed to further incite the presidency and the Nigerian Armed Forces against the people of Rivers State and the entire Niger Delta region. Addressing newsmen, late Tuesday evening, the state Commissioner for Information, Mr Austin Tam-George, also said the allegation was “a cynical reaction to his electoral and judicial defeats. He surely would not win any victory by diverting attention.” It would be recalled that the apex court had, on January 27, 2016, upturned the verdicts of both the election petitions tribunal and the Court of Appeal which nullified the then disputed governorship election in the state and upheld Wike as the winner. Peterside also accused the governor, with his recent comments, of becoming a threat to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and also warned him to desist from insulting President Muhammadu Buhari and the security agencies. The APC governorship candidate said, although he had accepted the apex court ruling, the utterances of Governor Wike, especially his statement at a thanksgiving service, last Sunday, had seemingly gave credence to doubt being expressed in the public space about the judgment. “Many a Nigerian continues to wonder why the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Governor Wike’s supporters went on wild celebration across Rivers State, as early as 9am on the day of judgment even if the actual verdict was handed down at about 6:20pm of that day. “It clearly suggests that they might have been in the know of what the judgment would be long before the Supreme Court pronounced it. “This is coupled with several comments, especially on the social media some three weeks earlier, such as “Thank God there will now be no need for a rerun election….. It is surely ending at the Supreme Court, etc, etc. “Credible information confirmed that Nyesom Wike had earlier confessed to some persons of having met one of the justices of the Supreme Court in Mbaise during an important burial, another at Owerri in a hotel and yet others in Dubai and Saudi Arabia, respectively. These justices were in the panel that decided the matter in Wike’s favour”, he said. “However, the most striking revelation by Nyesom Wike is contained in his account at the thanksgiving service last Sunday. He obviously stunned his audience and the watching world when he confessed that when it came to the judges, Dr Peter Odili and the wife, Justice Mary Odili (a justice of the Supreme Cout), were his advisers. “This simply confirmed his earlier statements that he had contact with the justices, after several attempts to reach the Chief Justice of the country failed. “It is therefore obvious that the decision of the Supreme Court on the Rivers State election was not a product of justice, but rather a product of compromise and orchestrated contrivance to legalise electoral violence and rigging and, in turn, reward injustice. This calls for serious introspection by our judiciary and judicial officers”, he said. He also described as a threat to INEC and ‘others’ the governor’s warning that anybody who planned to rig the forthcoming rerun elections in the state would be treated as armed robbers. He said, despite his having accepted the Supreme Court judgment but with mixed feelings, Governor Wike, while addressing civil servants in the state, after the verdict, allegedly threatened to deal with INEC personnel in the state in respect of the rerun election. “Anyone who plans to rig an election is an armed robber and should be treated as such. If you are coming to rig an election in the state, first prepare your will before embarking on the journey. Inform your wife or husband and go ahead to say your last prayer”, he quoted Wike to have said. The APC governorship candidate also accused the governor of not respecting President Buhari for saying that not even those he described as Boko Haram soldiers can stop him from preventing any rigging of the rerun election. Peterside said Wike dared Buhari by allegedly saying, “If you like bring your Boko Haram soldiers to Rivers State, I will enter INEC office on Election Day, let me see who will push me out.” He said such a statement clearly demonstrated the person of Wike as “someone lacking in respect, patriotism and character of being a councillor much more a state governor in the Federal Republic of Nigeria. “Let me draw the attention of Nyesom Wike to the fact that it is most callous of him to demonstrate such level of denigration on the gallant officers and men of the Nigerian military who are putting their lives at risk every other day to safeguard the Nigeria state and citizens when he referred to them as Boko Haram soldiers.” Denying all the allegations, The commissioner said, Peterside and APC did not ever truly accepted the Supreme Court verdict in the first instance, adding that their true reaction can be found in what transpired during Peterside’s recent meeting with the APC national chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, in Abuja. “At that meeting in which Dakuku Peterside was inciting the president and the people of Nigeria against the peoples of the Niger Delta and the Government and people of Rivers State, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun said “I still find the judgment on the Rivers State governorship election totally astonishing. “Chief Odigie-Oyegun then proceeded to announce that the Supreme Court would be probed for doing their work simply because verdict was not given in favour of Dr Dakuku Peterside. “Dr 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 APC would, as promised by their national chairman to 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 House of Assembly, with a view to impeaching Governor Wike. “Governor Wike is not the first politician to have warned against the consequences of election rigging. The President and Commander-in-Chief had himself used strong language to warn against election rigging when he said in the course of campaigns last year that: “God willing, by 2015, something will happen. They either conduct a free and fair election or they go a very disgraceful way. If what happened in 2011 (alleged rigging) should happen in 2015, by the Grace of God, the dog and the baboon would all be soaked in blood”‘ he said. Tam-George also denied that Governor Wike threatened INEC personnel or any other person, adding that only riggers and potential riggers should therefore be worried about the statement of the governor. He said the statement was rather aimed at bolstering INEC’s ability to conduct free and fair elections which “Peterside and Rotimi Amaechi are determined to undermine so that APC could win one oil-producing state. He described Peterside as a pathological liar for claiming that Wike had made a revelation of the Supreme Court judgment, describing the allegations as scornful, demented and laughable. “Why then did Governor Wike lose his appeal to the Supreme Court on the proper venue where the Rivers State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal should sit? “After all the distinguished Honourable Justice Mary Odili was on that panel of the Supreme Court and Governor Wike lost the appeal. Then, “there was nothing fundamentally wrong with the Supreme Court”. On the issue of violence in the forthcoming rerun election in the state, the information commissioner said Governor had never preached violence but rather choose to sacrifice his ambition for the people of Rivers State. He said Governor Wike had never insulted President Buhari and was in full support of the fight against corruption, adding former Governor Amaechi and his co-travellers were rather known abuses and invectives on former President Goodluck Jonathan without any words of caution by the APC leadership . “It must be observed that Governor Wike’s commitment to the fight against corruption is total, complete and unequivocal. It is on record that, upon assumption of office, he instituted a Commission of Inquiry with judicial approval. “That Commission’s Report has been given approval in a Government White Paper. One of those indicted is Mr Rotimi Amaechi, former governor of Rivers State. “The governor merely condemned a fight against corruption that abrogates the rule of law, is one sided and is obviously targeted at political opponents. These are concerns that all Nigerians are freely expressing. Why pick on Governor Wike?”, he said. He also said the governor never referred to the Nigerian soldiers as Boko Haram, but merely alluded to the fact that even if the soldiers, hardened and experienced by their fight against Boko Haram, are brought to assist APC rig elections in the state, they still would not be able to defeat the will and resilience of the people.]]>