Senator Magnus Ngei Abe,All Progressives Congress(APC) candidate in the Rivers South East Senatorial District re-run election has called on all APC supporters across the Rivers South East Senatorial District to take whatever step necessary to defend themselves and protect their lives and property if attacked by PDP thugs and supporters.
Speaking at a Press conference in Port Harcourt, Abe said that the decision was taken after a careful review of the security situation in the district where PDP had armed their supporters with automatic rifles and dynamites.
“From today, if anybody opens fire on members of the APC anywhere in my senatorial district,there will be a response. Anybody who has two heads should bring out his second head to do whatever he wants to do within the senatorial district that would affect the lives or threaten the lives of members of the APC. We will no longer tolerate it. We are not women only. We are not children only. We are men, women and youths that are members of this party. From now on, we will defend ourselves; we will protect our members and do whatever is necessary to secure our lives and secure the lives of our members”.
Abe recalled that in Gokana, where Mr. Kenneth Kobani was arrested for disrupting the election that hell was let loose when PDP supporters opened fire with assault rifles on everybody who was there and threw dynamites and bombs in the INEC office.
He stated that if not for the presence of soldiers, it would have got out of hand.
The former Secretary to Rivers State Government said that after the incident, armed thugs of PDP matched with their guns and dangerous weapons in B-Dere and several communities, destroying property of members of All Progressives Congress (APC).
He further stated that when he heard about adequate security presence in the state for the election, he had thought that there would be checkpoints everywhere, but was surprised that only few policemen were at INEC office while, the rest of the local government area were without police presence.
“We expected that given all that have been said about the expectation of violence in Rivers State that the entire state will be in lock down, there will be checkpoints, police and soldiers everywhere, unfortunately, that did not happen. There was zero security presence. Even when it became clear that lives of INEC Adhoc Staff were being threatened and in jeopardy, nothing much was done to protect their lives not to talk of our own supporters of the APC, who have become an endangered species in Rivers State”.