President, Mrs. Patience Jonathan, on Friday said there was no truth
in the allegation that she was pressuring the Independent National
Electoral Commission and security agencies to rig the governorship
election in Rivers State in favour of the Peoples Democratic Party.
The state governor, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, had during a stakeholders’
meeting on Thursday alleged that Mrs. Jonathan was in her
hometown, Okrika, to supervise electoral malpractices during the
elections.
But the President’s wife, in a statement by the Director of Information
in her office, Ihuoma Priscilla, said as an apostle of peace, she could
not be involved in act that would hinder peaceful conduct of elections
in any part of the country.
The statement read, “The First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan has
dismissed the allegation that she was pressurising the Independent
National Electoral Commission (and the Security Agencies to rig April
11 (today’s) elections in Rivers State.
“As an apostle of peace and non-violent elections, the First Lady
distances herself from any alleged actions that could hinder
successful elections in Nigeria, especially in her home state, Rivers
State.
“She countered the insinuations that she was in her hometown, Okrika
for the purpose of the governorship election, pointing out that she
registered in her husband, President Jonathan’s village, Otuoke in
Ogbia Local Government Area of Bayelsa State.
“The First Lady, a highly respected indigene of Okrika in Rivers State
visited her hometown on Wednesday, April 8, 2015 to a tumultuous
welcome by her kinsmen and women who thronged the streets to
welcome and appreciate her wonderful support to her husband, the
President and for bringing development to Okrikaland.”
Amaechi had claimed that Mrs. Jonathan was working hard to impose
a governor on the state and ensure that the people’s votes do not
count.
The governor had said, “The reason for this meeting is to let you know
that what happened on the 28th of March, 2015 may or may not
repeat itself. Few days ago, I said it would not repeat itself. But as at
this morning, there are enormous pressures on the security operatives
by the wife of the President.
“There is also enormous pressure on INEC by the wife of the
President. I hope that they will not repeat the hijacking of results that
we witnessed on March 28. In most of the local government areas, if
not all, there were no result sheets. This time around, I hope they will
bring the result sheets to the different units. I hope they will not
forget the result sheets at the collation centre.
“For me as the governor of Rivers State, what is material to me is
that we want to see the result sheets. We want to ensure that as we
vote, our votes will count. Most of you have been asking this
question; who will take over from me? I told you that we don’t want
anybody to force a candidate on us.
“We don’t want people to be made governor because they want to
share our resources. That is not what we want. We want to be
allowed to vote and let our votes be counted. Let the wife of the
President stay in her house. She should not force a candidate on us.
“They should tell her that security agencies have assured us that they
will allow votes to count. I assure you that the security agencies will
not be biased and I hope that the security agencies will keep to that. I
hope that the woman posted here as the Resident Electoral
Commission would know that her responsibility is not to allow
anybody to see the result sheets.”


source: http://www.punchng.com/news/im-not-planning-to-rig-rivers-polls-patience-jonathan/

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