Wife of the President, Mrs.
Patience Jonathan, on Friday said
there was no truth in the
allegation that she was
pressuring the Independent
National Electoral Commission
and security agencies to rig the
governorship election in Rivers
State in favour of the Peoples
Democratic Party.
The state governor, Mr. Rotimi
Amaechi, had during a
stakeholders’ meeting on
Thursday alleged that Mrs.
Jonathan was in her hometown,
Okrika, to supervise electoral
malpractices during the elections.
But the President’s wife, in a
statement by the Director of
Information in her office, Ihuoma
Priscilla, said as an apostle of
peace, she could not be involved
in act that would hinder peaceful
conduct of elections in any part of
the country.
The statement read, “The First
Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan has
dismissed the allegation that she
was pressurising the
Independent National Electoral
Commission (and the Security
Agencies to rig April 11 (today’s)
elections in Rivers State.
“As an apostle of peace and non-
violent elections, the First Lady
distances herself from any
alleged actions that could hinder
successful elections in Nigeria,
especially in her home state,
Rivers State.
“She countered the insinuations
that she was in her hometown,
Okrika for the purpose of the
governorship election, pointing
out that she registered in her
husband, President Jonathan’s
village, Otuoke in Ogbia Local
Government Area of Bayelsa State.
“The First Lady, a highly respected
indigene of Okrika in Rivers State
visited her hometown on
Wednesday, April 8, 2015 to a
tumultuous welcome by her
kinsmen and women who
thronged the streets to welcome
and appreciate her wonderful
support to her husband, the
President and for bringing
development to Okrikaland.”
Amaechi had claimed that Mrs.
Jonathan was working hard to
impose a governor on the state
and ensure that the people’s
votes do not count.
The governor had said, “The
reason for this meeting is to let
you know that what happened on
the 28th of March, 2015 may or
may not repeat itself. Few days
ago, I said it would not repeat
itself. But as at this morning,
there are enormous pressures on
the security operatives by the
wife of the President.
“There is also enormous pressure
on INEC by the wife of the
President. I hope that they will
not repeat the hijacking of results
that we witnessed on March 28. In
most of the local government
areas, if not all, there were no
result sheets. This time around, I
hope they will bring the result
sheets to the different units. I
hope they will not forget the
result sheets at the collation
centre.
“For me as the governor of Rivers
State, what is material to me is
that we want to see the result
sheets. We want to ensure that as
we vote, our votes will count.
Most of you have been asking this
question; who will take over from
me? I told you that we don’t want
anybody to force a candidate on
us.
“We don’t want people to be
made governor because they
want to share our resources. That
is not what we want. We want to
be allowed to vote and let our
votes be counted. Let the wife of
the President stay in her house.
She should not force a candidate
on us.
“They should tell her that security
agencies have assured us that
they will allow votes to count. I
assure you that the security
agencies will not be biased and I
hope that the security agencies
will keep to that. I hope that the
woman posted here as the
Resident Electoral Commission
would know that her
responsibility is not to allow
anybody to see the result sheets.”
by ROTMANLUV 2023-07-08, 17:34
