The Senator representing Rivers South-East Senatorial District in the National Assembly, Magnus Ngei Abe, has mourned the death of the former Chairman of Andoni Local Government Area and others who lost their lives in the violence that marred Saturday’s Presidential and National Assembly elections in Rivers State.

Abe, in a statement he personally signed warned politicians against playing politics of bitterness and spilling of blood.

He stated that politics must grow beyond the primitive level, even as he called for the arrest and prosecution of those behind the heinous murders of innocent Rivers men and women.

The statement reads made available to News Express on Sunday reads in part: “Unbelievable! My friend and longtime associate, Hon. Mowan Etete and other innocent Rivers people are dead today simply because they came out to answer the call of their country and perform their civic obligation.

“I had warned repeatedly that we should not stoke the drums of war and Rivers people should no longer forgive any politician no matter how highly placed that is culpable in the orgy of violence that has characterised our recent past.

“Our politics must begin to move beyond the primitive stage. No politician should continue to claim the power to deliver any unit not to talk of a ward, a local government or a state.

“We must imbibe the true spirit of democracy which means that the vote of the Governor, the vote of the Minister, the vote of the Senator and the vote of the Commissioner and that of the Chairman will have the same value as that of the Bricklayer, the Driver, the Nurse, and the Unemployed Youth.

“No one should have the power to promise or guarantee the vote of one Nigerian to a third party.

“If you are good to your people, you can appeal to them but you must respect their wishes where it differs from your own.”

The statement further said that the murder of Mowan and others yesterday must be treated as the heinous crime that it is. “It is not just the gunmen but those behind the scenes who planned and orchestrated that violence must also be brought to book,” Abe said.

He maintained that Rivers State must grow beyond the politics of blood, saying: “We can no longer allow our dear state to be a byword for electoral violence and bloodshed in the comity of states.

“As we speak, we are yet to ascertain the exact number of Rivers men and women that were murdered today in the name of elections. We have to confront the situation as a community and put a stop to it. No perpetrator should go unpunished.”