The south south zonal secretary of the All Progressives Congress, APC, David Okumgba, says efforts by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP,, to portray Okrika Local Government Council in bad light will end in futility.
Speaking to newsmen in Port Harcourt at the Zonal Secretariat today, he said, allegations by the PDP suggesting that security agents were colluding with APC, to rig elections in the area is false and mischievous.
Excerpts of the press statement below:
PRESS BRIEFING BY DAVID OKUMGBA, SOUTH SOUTH APC ZONAL SECRETARY, ON PEOPLES DEMOCRATIC PARTY’S ALARMING TENDENCIES AND FALSE ACCUSATION OF SECURITY AGENCIES IN OKRIKA LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA
Gentlemen of the press,
I have been apprised with the false alarms and accusations of security agencies by the Rivers State Chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in a bid to misinform unsuspecting members of the public, preempt the security agencies and put them in bad light.
The statement by the PDP, alleging that Okirika Local Government Council has been taken over by well-armed military personnel who they claim were deployed to unleash mayhem on the people and interrupt the smooth operation of the voting exercise is not only mendacious but designed to discredit the voting exercise.
For the records, Okrika Local Government Council is the collation centre for the Presidential and National Assembly elections which was earlier scheduled to hold today.
Consequently, security agencies were deployed to provide adequate security for electoral officers, to prevent sponsored thugs and hoodlums from disrupting the electoral process and ensure that collation of result is done under a peaceful and secure atmosphere.
It is worrisome that the PDP will make inciting and unfounded utterances targeted at unnecessarily heating up the polity having known of their imminent defeat at the polls.
Recall that the Rivers State Commissioner for information, Emma Okah, yesterday, February 15, made a similar attempt to smear security agencies by accusing the Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad (FSARS) of deploying a special squad to hijack electoral materials and maim PDP members during the elections.
We find these mendacious statements coming from persons who are supposed to discharge the duties of their offices with every sense of responsibility, sincerity and professionalism, highly disappointing. Clearly, the public can see that the PDP thrives on raising false alarms and making unconfirmed claims capable of breaching the peace and causing public disaffection.
Prevarication is indeed the order of the day for the PDP and I believe no serious-minded and unbiased individual will take them seriously.
I therefore, call on members of the public to discountenance the claims of the PDP who are obviously bent on misleading the public in order to garner public sympathy and score cheap political points ahead of what would have been their biggest electoral loss in the history of Okrika and Rivers State.
David Okumgba
Zonal Secretary, South-South APC
