Although the petitioners alleged that Governor Wike was destroying the electoral process in Rivers, The PUNCH could not confirm the veracity of their claims.
The progenitor of the petition, Onyebuchi Ezeagabu, alleged that Wike was “operating to destroy electoral process,” adding that the eligibility of the governor’s Visa and that of his family should be revoked.
Ezeagabu wrote, “The Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, has been operating to destroy electoral process in the state he governs. We demand his and his family’s visas eligibility revoked.”
A signee, Amechi Victor said, “He is against democracy in Nigeria. He just manipulated election results.”
Another person who supported the petition, Ugochi Agua-Onyekwelu, wrote, “This man has caused a lot of trouble and thuggery in the Nigerian political scene. He is always inciting people against the Igbos and have actually carried out the killing of thousands of Igbo men in his state at Obigbo, PH. He believes so much in violence and talks carelessly like a lout.”
The PUNCH reports that there were unconfirmed reports of alleged violence in some poling units in Rivers State during the Presidential and National Assembly elections on Saturday.
Also, a reporter with The PUNCH, Gbenga Oloniniran, was on Saturday afternoon arrested by a team of policemen near the residence of Governor Wike in Rumuiprikon, in the Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of the state.
Oloniniran, who was on election duty, was taking snapshots of a scene where policemen were arresting some youths at a polling unit when the officers swooped on him.
Without listening to him, the officers attached to the Swift Operation Squad seized his phone, assaulted him and bundled him into their van.
The yet-to-be-identified policeman pointed a gun at Oloniniran, who immediately obeyed the law of gravity by lying down.
He was beaten while in the van even as they deleted several pictures he had previously taken, including those taken while he was being arrested.
He was, however, released at the Rivers State University Junction in Port Harcourt after the matter was reported to the Rivers State Police Command spokesperson, Grace Iringe-Koko.
Speaking with our correspondent after his release, Oloniniran said he was brutalised by police officers at a polling unit close to where the incumbent governor of the state, Nyesom Wike, voted earlier.
The journalist said he was arrested for recording the moment some police officers were harassing a male voter at the polling unit.
