Rivers re run Police report indicts governor Wike

The investigative panel set up by the Inspector General of Police to
investigate the violence and other offences perpetrated during the
Rivers state re run election has indicted the state governor Barrister
Nyesom Wike of complicity.
The News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, reports that a police panel said that
it recovered N111 million from 23 INEC officials.
The Chairman of the panel, Damian Okoro, a Deputy Commissioner of
Police, made the allegation while presenting the team’s report to the
Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, in Abuja on Tuesday.
He alleged that three senior electoral officers collected N20 million
each out of the N360 million given to them by Gov. Nyesom Wike of
Rivers, while the remaining officers received N15 million each.
But in a swift reaction The Rivers State government on Tuesday denied
that Governor Nyesom Wike allegedly spent N360 million to bribe
Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, staff during the
December 10 re-run legislative election.
The Special Assistant to the Rivers Governor on Electronic Media,
Simeon Nwakaudu, said the allegation was false and politically
motivated.
Mr. Nwakaudu in a statement in Port Harcourt said that the police
allegation was aimed at diverting attention from the real issues about
the election.
“The statement (by the police) is patently false, politically
motivated and cooked by the police to justify the violence they
visited in the people of Rivers state during the re-run” he said.
According to him, Governor Wike did not spend N360 million to rig the
re-run election.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Ezenwo
Wike did not spend N360 million to rig the re-run legislative
elections of December 10, 2016.
“The people of Rivers State overwhelmingly voted the PDP across the
state because of the outstanding performance of Governor Wike since
May 29, 2015,” Mr. Nwakaudu said.