The All Progressives Congress governorship candidate in Rivers State said he is prepared to prove that his party won the March 18 governorship poll. He insisted that the entire process was hijacked and fraught with irregularities to favour the ruling party. Speaking to journalists in Port Harcourt, the state capital, on Sunday, Cole addressed the recent filing of proceedings at the election tribunal by three lawyers for the party and the bail granted to five of their support staff.
Cole alleged the existence of a special police unit working for the state governor, dubbed “Wike Police,” and a “Wike Police Station.” He warned that the activities of this group threaten democracy and must be stopped. “It has been a very disturbing and traumatic process for our democracy,” he said. “It started with the arrest of our lawyers who were preparing for the tribunal. All evidence, drafts, and written scripts were seized, which was dangerous because those documents form the basis of our case.” He added that pressure was applied to the police, the Nigerian Bar Association, and the media, noting that such intimidation had never been seen before in Nigeria. “It took over 36 hours, including sleeping at the police station, refusing to leave until some justice was done,” he said.
When police claimed that three of the party’s lawyers and five support staff were arrested on Saturday night for printing documents and fake INEC papers, Cole called the allegation flimsy. “How can you print fake INEC documents inside a hotel? I have no idea. They said there were hacking issues, but I don’t know how you can hack any information. In the end, it was a very weak excuse,” he said. He suggested that the arrests were based on a tip that backfired on the authorities.
Cole urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to comply with the party’s demand for the release of certified true copies of election documents needed to present their case at the tribunal. “We need the evidence from EC8, EC8A, and EC8B—these are the agents’ copies that prove we held an election. If those disappear, it means the APC was not in the field at all, and we cannot allow that,” he explained.
Regarding police invitations for INEC to inspect documents allegedly seized from the lawyers, Cole argued that an electoral umpire who will be a defendant cannot examine drafts or files. “INEC will be a defendant at the tribunal, so it cannot see our arguments, our computers, or our files. The police themselves verified that everything was legally sound, and allowing INEC access would be disastrous,” he said.
Cole further described the recent arrests and seizure of documents as orchestrated by a special police unit aimed at preventing the party from reaching the tribunal. “The weekend arrests were a calculated attempt to stop us. The group called ‘Wike Police’ and its station must be stopped. We cannot have two separate police groups. The same unit that hijacked the election is now arresting our people,” he asserted. He noted that, because of the pressure they applied, the documents were transferred from the Police Surveillance and Intelligence Centre to the State Criminal Investigation Department, a move he attributed to the “Wike Police.”
Insisting on a fair process, Cole said, “We know we won this election and that it was hijacked. We want to go to court and have our day.” Attempts to reach the state Commissioner for Police, Okon Effiong, were unsuccessful; he did not answer multiple calls or reply to a text message as of Sunday evening.
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