The governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress in Rivers State in the April 2015 election, Dakuku Peterside, has posited that the Supreme Court judgment that validated the election of Governor, Nyesom Wike was contrived to legalise electoral violence and rigging.
Dakuku dropped the hint while addressing Journalists in a press conference in Port Harcourt on Tuesday February 9, 2015.
Accoding to him, “It is obvious that the decision of the Supreme Court on the Rivers State election was not a product of justice but rather a product of compromise and orchestrated contrivance to legalise electoral violence and rigging and in turn reward injustice.”
Despite accepting the Supreme Court verdict and congratulated Wike on his victory, the APC governorship candidate alleged that governor’s speech at a Church thanksgiving service last Sunday to mark his victory in the court as well as in other events indicates that he (Wike, PDP and her supporters “might have been in the know of what the judgment would be long before the Supreme Court pronounced it.”
Dakuku, commenting further on the Supreme Court verdict, expressed doubts that the Supreme Court ruling was a product of justice, “Many a Nigerian continues to wonder why PDP and Governor Wike’s supporters went on wild celebration across Rivers State as early as 9am on the Day of judgment even if the actual verdict was handed down at about 6:20 pm of that day”.
“It clearly suggests that they might have been in the know of what the judgment would be long before the Supreme Court pronounced it.
“This is coupled with several comments especially on the social media some three weeks earlier such as ‘Thank God there will now be no need for a rerun election. It is surely ending at the Supreme Court, etc.”
He said information at his disposal confirmed that Wike had told some close allies he did not name that he (governor) met with one of the justices of the Supreme Court in Mbaise, a town in Imo State, another one in a hotel in Owerri, the state capital and others outside the country.
According to him, the two justices were incidentally members of the panel that decided the case last month.
He said, “Credible information confirmed that Nyesom Wike had earlier confessed to some persons of having met one of the Justices of the Supreme Court in Mbaise during an important burial, another at Owerri in a hotel and yet others in Dubai and Saudi Arabia respectively. These Justices were in the panel that decided the matter in Wike’s favour.
“However, the most striking revelation by Nyesom Wike is contained in his account at the thanksgiving service last Sunday. He obviously stunned his audience and the watching world when he confessed that when it came to the Judges, Dr. Peter Odili and the wife Justice Mary Odili (a Justice of the Supreme Court) were his advisers.
“This simply confirmed his earlier statements that he had contact with the Justices after several attempts to reach the Chief Justice of the country failed. “It is therefore obvious that the decision of the Supreme Court on the Rivers State Election was not a product of justice but rather a product of compromise and orchestrated contrivance to legalise electoral violence and rigging and, in turn, reward injustice. This calls for serious introspection by our Judiciary and judicial officers.”
“This shocking confession needs no further explanation except for you and other decent Nigerians to further make your fair conclusions,” he said.
However, the Rivers State Commissioner for Information and Communication, Dr. Tam George in his reaction denied all the allegations.
