River Guber: How Voters Were Whipped, Forced To Vote PDP

The governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC in Rivers State, Tonye Cole, has decried what he described as the high level of voter intimidation in the state March 18 governorship election.

Cole spoke on alleged irregularities that greet

ed the Rivers governorship election in an interview on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily. 

He alleged that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) piloted a dominance of voter suppression that affected the turnout of voters in Rivers.

The APC candidate claimed voters were whipped and threatened to forcefully vote for PDP, adding that government officials and security personnel took control of ballot boxes in various polling units.

Cole described Rivers as a “hijacked PDP state,” alleging that he was attacked by the opposition.

He further stated, “They came and carried the entire polling unit away (sic) and took them to an unknown destination and the next thing we saw is that these results were uploaded.

“We knew that it was going to happen because we had heard it in a small political environment and so we knew that there were plans to kidnap [people]. We saw people come into the polling unit who were strange.

“There was not enough security to counter that in any case, it was a national election, and security was widespread. We had choices and one of the choices that we had was to arm and equip our own side equally, but this was going to escalate into bloodshed, and death and we chose not to.”

“I would have loved this to be tested without intimidation, without violence and just allow a free and fair election to hold. The violence and the ability to rig has kept Rivers State a PDP state since 1999,” he said.