Senator Ahmed Makarfi-led National Caretaker Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday accused the Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi, and the All Progressives Congress  (APC) led federal government of plans to assassinate Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State.

But in a swift reaction, the APC described the report the Rivers State government and the PDP, alleging the withdrawal of Wike’s security aides and an assassination threat on the governor as a hoax meant to deflect attention from the reports of an arms buildup and other sinister plots the PDP administration planned to execute during Saturday’s legislative re-run elections.

The spokesman of the caretaker committee, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, in a statement yesterday, said the alleged withdrawal of the security detail to the governor on Monday was to expose him to danger of assassination and possibly intimidate him to succumb to “the rigging plans” over the national and state assembly re-run elections.

Prince Adeyeye described the act as despicable and a complete affront and declaration of war on Rivers people using the apparatus of state.

The PDP also said the act confirmed the desperation of the APC to win the elections at all cost with no consideration for the lives of citizens and called on Nigerians to pray for the survival of democracy in the country.

“It is common knowledge that since the inception of this government, the APC leaders have approached elections in the country with different rigging methods.

“Nigerians will recall that Governor Wike alerted on the plots of enemies led government at the centre to murder him. A serious indication was the Commissioner of Police, Rivers State, Mr. Folusho Adebanjo, working on the order of desperate APC-led federal government withdrew more than 70 percent of security personnel detailed to the Rivers State Government House, Port Harcourt,” the PDP alleged.

But the APC, in a statement through its national secretary, Mai Mala Buni, said nobody was after Wike.

Buni said the governor and the “PDP’s diversionary and false alarm was hinged on the reality” that they would lose the legislative re-run elections once security was tightened in Rivers State.

He stated that the PDP and the governor were being haunted their “horrible past misdeeds”, saying Wike as a former PDP minister used federal institutions to threaten the life of perceived political enemies, particularly Amaechi, who was then governor of Rivers State. 

“The President Muhammadu Buhari-led APC administration has successively demonstrated the will to ensure that all elections are free, transparent and credible. 

“Saturday’s legislative re-run elections in Rivers will not be different. The administration does not subscribe to such evil machinations where government institutions are used to achieve political ends,” he added.

The APC called on security agencies to investigate the report of an arms build-up and remain on high alert over the security situation in Rivers State in the lead-up to the legislative re-run election. (D.T)