Amaechi, Wike, fresh showdown: A contest marked with blood

It will be a show of political might and test of their strength. Amaechi who came into the state weekend said he was on ground to mobilise his All Progressive Congress, APC members for the election. On the streets of Port Harcourt, the perception has been that the election will be a clash of “federal” and “local” might. Amaechi in a monitored radio programme in Port Harcourt promised that the state will be flooded with heavy presence of soldiers to forestall rigging. Already soldiers have been conducting mop up operations in several communities in the state ahead of the exercise. Some of the security operations have been greeted with mixed reception. While the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP has largely condemned the security operations, the APC in the state has welcomed it with much enthusiasm. In Buguma, the Council of chiefs in advertorials condemned the recent invasion of the community by heavilly armed security operatives, saying the invasion was orchestrated by a member of one of the political parties. Ahead of the elections some communities in the state have recorded bizarre killings. Preliminary investigations by the Police said some of the killings were cult related but some persons think they could also be fall out of party differences in the communities. In Buguma, headquaters of Asari Toru local government area two mindless murders were recorded within a space of 24 hours. The first was the murder of Ofinjite Amachree, a member of the All Progressive Congress, APC on Tuesday last week. His assailants after killing him allegedly set his corpse ablaze. Governorship candidate of the All Progressive Congress, APC, Dr Dakuku Peterside and his party in separate statements condemned the brutal murder.