•’He’s only afraid of defeat’
The All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate for Rivers South-East senatorial district in this month’s re-run National Assembly poll, Senator Magnus Abe has expressed loss of confidence in the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) for Rivers State, Mr. Aniedi Ikiowak.
Abe accused the electoral umpire of being a contractor to the Ministry of Education when Governor Nyesome Wike was minister.
Speaking with newsmen in Port Harcourt, Abe said Ikiowak had a warm relationship with Governor Wike as a contractor and had allegedly demonstrated bias from the manner he conducted the re-run election by announcing the results of Port Harcourt Local Government Area despite alleged irregularities and suspending that of Tai council to allegedly give the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) an advantage.
Abe said because of the relationship Ikiowak had with Wike from the time the governor was the Minister of Education and considering the REC’s role in the rigging of the re-run election, that he (Abe) could no longer believe there is a level playing field for all the political parties and therefore have lost confidence in the ability of Ikiowak to conduct a free, fair and credible re-run election in the state.
Reacting to the statement by Senator Abe, Commissioner for Information and Communications, Dr. Austin Tam-George, said he was only pre-empting his likely defeat in the forthcoming rerun poll slated for the end of the month.
“Senator Abe is cooking up a cocktail of calumny and vilification of INEC officials in Rivers. Governor Wike categorically denies any form of relationship with any INEC officials.
“Rivers people will reject Senator Abe and his co-travellers yet again in the July poll.”
Abe, however, said that did not mean he would pull out of the election except directed by the party.