Tede
Graham-Douglas expresses pains at fleeing residents
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday disclosed that it would petition the United Nations (UN) over alleged military role in indiscretions of the February 23, 2019 Presidential elections.
Briefing journalists after the party’s expanded national caucus meeting in Abuja, PDP’s Spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan, said the party expressed support for the Presidential candidate of PDP, Atiku Abubakar’s resolve to challenge the polls outcome at the Election Tribunal.
“Caucus commended Nigerians for refusing the harassment, intimidation and militarisation of the electoral process and participating in the election, but noted that the mandate freely given to our candidate was stolen.“And as such, the party and its candidate resolved to go to the tribunal and reach the end of what is permissible within our legal system to retrieve our mandate on behalf of Nigerians,” he said.
According to the party, Caucus further noted the role played by military personnel in the February 23 election and resolved that we will report the action through a petition to UN, as well as other global democratic institutions on their role in the elections.”
Ologbondiyan also told journalists that Caucus further raised issues about the harassment, intimidation and cajoling of its members on the plot by the Buhari presidency and the All Progressives Congress (APC) to intimidate Atiku.
“We insist that our party and our candidate have resolved to seek legal redress on the stolen mandate.“We also decry the militarisation of the South-South and the rigging, which the APC is plotting ahead of the election. We urge Nigerians to come out en masse and vote for PDP candidates,” he added.
However, a founding father of Abonema Kingdom in Akuku-Toru Local Government Area of Rivers State, Alabo Tonye Graham-Douglas, has expressed pains over killings in the area, which he said was forcing residents to flee to neigbouring communities for safety.
Graham-Douglas, a former Minister of Aviation and Transportation under former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration, however, appealed to the military to tamper justice with mercy over the killings of its troops in Abonema by unknown gunmen and not engage in reprisals.
Lamenting that the Abonema issue has dragged on beyond control, he also urged the Federal Government to investigate the remote causes of the crises, their sponsors and bring all culprits to book.He spoke yesterday in Port Harcourt, while briefing journalists on developments in the area and blamed the Abonema situation on partisan politics.
“Abonema since its founding and settlement in 1982 has maintained a disciplined mode of existence with cosmopolitan accommodation of all strangers, but unfortunately, with the advent of partisan politics, before independence political sentiments evolved. This polarized Abonnema and other cities in Kalabari Kingdom,” he stated.
