Ensure Voters Safety, Concerned Rivers Citizen Charges Police On LG Poll
3 min read
Edith CHUKU
Three days to the local government election across the 23 LGA of Rivers State, Mr. Igor Augustine Museph, has called on the state Police command and other security agencies to ensure the safety of lives and properties of voters and the people of the state in general.
Museph gave this charge following the agitation by natives and residents of the state, that the election would be characterized by violence.
The youth leader who noted that the October 5 LG poll was sacrosanct, stressed on the need for security agencies to ensure that the environment was peaceful for people to cast their votes for any candidate from any party of their choice.
While expressing his understanding of the worry expressed by residents in the forthcoming election, Museph explained that the state LG poll was peculiar because of the clash of interest from political gladiators.
Speaking with TNN in an exclusive interview on Wednesday, he said, “if you can remember there is a landmark judgment from Supreme Court that have declared the setting up of caretaker committee as illegal.
“After that judgement, the federal government led by Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu invited the 36 states governors to a close door meeting where they were given a 90-day window to conduct local government election else they will stop receiving local government allocations.
“Just last Saturday, Anambra conducted, this same Saturday Akwa Ibom and others are also conducting. Rivers State is peculiar for two reasons; one, the clash of interest from our political gladiators; we all know how Sir Siminalayi Fubara came into the mainstream as the governor of our state and today his relationship with his predecessor is not as rosy as we wish it ought to be, and me and you know that politics simply is a game of interest.
“For the supporters of Nyesom Wike, they are not participating in the election but to us Rivers people that feel the right thing must be done, we are coming out en masse on Saturday, we are going to come out in our numbers to cast our vote for candidates we believe have all it takes to move their respective LGA forward.”
He assured voters and residents of the state that there was no reason to worry, noting that the supporters of the FCT Minister were not participating in the election. “no reason to be worried, they are not participating, why will they come to make the place unpeaceful? they said they are not participating and it’s a choice and we respect that.
“I will beckon on the security agencies to ensure the environment come Saturday will be peaceful for Rivers people to cast their vote for any of the candidate from any of the parties they are comfortable with. As for me and my household, we will be coming out on Saturday precisely in unit 9, Eneka, to vote for our God sent candidate vying under the platform of the Action People’s Party APP, Chief Amb. Chijioke Ihunwo, so I don’t entertain any fear ma.
“Eneka over the years have never had an election where we fight ourselves but I will still tell them, in the spirit of sportsmanship, they should come out peacefully, vote, ensure their votes is being counted and protected peacefully, no cause for alarm.”
