The Director General of Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr Dakuku Peterside, has condemned Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State for being involved in electoral fraud and threats to INEC officials.
Dr Peterside’s castigation follows the release of a tape by SaharaReporters wherein the governor was captured offering bribe and threatening the lives of INEC officials.
According to him, “I have observed with horror the audio tape now going viral on the internet that revealed how Nyesom Wike, the Rivers State Governor, abused the honour and trust of his office to organise the rigging of the legislative elections that took place December 11.
“Rather than take responsibility for his action, he is blaming the Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi and myself and other highflyers of the APC, for collaborating with Sahara Reporters that caught him on tape.
“Governor Wike has not done well. He should not cast aspersion on me and members of APC who did not force him to turn on his phone and voice out murderous words and profanities.
“What Governor Wike did was a clear case of electoral crime and high-vintage corruption by a man who should be the number one citizen of the state.
“He should explain to the people of Rivers State why he held his phone and spoke to members of the Independent National Electoral Commission. By that very act, he overstepped his bounds. He also confessed on the phone that he had disbursed funds to the electoral officers.
“The other crime he committed was a threat of murder. Hectoring and reckless, he threatened an electoral officer from Plateau State that he would “Kill” him and would not allow him to leave Rivers State ‘alive’.
“This does not bear the refinement of a gubernatorial language. It is the register and habit of gangsters. Saying, ‘I am going to make sure I will kill him in this state’, and that if the officer did not play the rigging game, he should refund the money or bribe he gave the electoral officers is detestable. The first duty of a governor is to maintain the peace and preserve lives. When a governor descends to the lingo of bloodshed and does it without a sense of the dignity of his office, we all as Rivers State residents and citizens of Nigeria have cause to worry.
“That is not what election is about in a democracy. All those who had conversations and dealings with Governor Wike to undermine our electoral integrity ought to be prosecuted.”
