By John Owen Nwachukwu

Sobomabo Jackrich, the governorship candidate of the National Rescue Mission, NRM, in Rivers State has revealed why he threatened that officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, coming to the state with the intent of rigging the governorship and state assembly elections will not leave alive.

Jackrich, who was once the Caretaker Chairman of Asari-Toru Local Government Area in Rivers and an ally of Governor Nyesom Wike, alleged that the last presidential election was massively rigged in his LGA against the Labour Party, LP.

He alleged that Governor Wike rigged the election for a particular candidate in the state and for that reason, youths of the Asari-Toru LGA have decided that rigging will not be repeated.

He said Wike is now making plans with some security agencies in the state to arrest and take him away from the state to ensure he is not on ground during the election.

“There’s nothing hidden under the sun. The immediate past presidential election in Rivers State in particular, in my LGA, Asari-Toru, even though I have reports from the other LGA, the will of my LGA was the LP candidate,” Jackrich, also known as Egbripapa, said on Arise TV.

“LP won the majority of the seats but all of a sudden everything turned around to be something else. And that gave me concerns. People across the board are murmuring and are not comfortable with the electoral umpires because we saw an open rigging.

“We saw the conspiracy between the ruling party of the state and the umpire, the INEC. Now this gives the concern to say that if this thing can be done like this in the presidential election, the governorship election we’ve lost hope and people are saying they’re not going to come out and vote because their votes will not count. This would mean that only the people who have perpetrated this act and their co-hurts will come out and vote.

“The majority of the people calling for a new Nigeria and new Rivers State have been discouraged so we chose to come out and addressed it headlong and said we are not happy with what the Rivers State Government did with the presidential election and that the only way we can move was for the Independent National Electoral Commission to come out and tell us that they will adhere to the electoral act as well as the guidelines. Recently we’ve been addressing these issues then we were reminded of what the Governor in 2015 told INEC.

“He told INEC to be careful of how they address things when they come into Rivers State.

That if they’re coming into Rivers State and do not do the right thing they’re not leaving the state alive and those were the messages we gave back to him and to the INEC, telling them that this message still stands.

“If they come into the state and do not do the right thing and rig again for a particular candidate then it means that this can be replicated and because of that fear, knowing that the youth have decided that the votes must be counted this time, the Governor in partnership with some security agents met and directed that I should be arrested, in fact that I should be framed up and arrested so that I’ll not be on ground during the election.

“And as I speak, the Commissioner of Police has invited me. The Governor has partnered with some security agencies to see how they can arrest and take me away so that on election day they can have a free way of rigging the election. This is why I’m raising an alarm to inform the general public.”