By Mark Lenu
An advocacy group under the auspices of the Citizens’ Rights Advocacy Initiative (CRAI] has disagreed with Edward Asikitams over calls to cancel the September 14 IYC Eastern Zone election in Port Harcourt.
Asikitams who was one of the aspirants in the election and the outgone Chairman, IYC Kalabari Se-Ikpangi had called for the cancellation of the election which produced Prince Datolu Sukubo as chairman.
The loser aspirant cited violence as the reason the election was canceled; a claim which the group through its Coordinator, Comrade Sobebo Princewill had dismissed, clarifying that the violence did not occur within the arena of the election but outside.
The coordinator of the group told our correspondent that the same National President of IYC, Comrade Jonathan Lokpobiri Snr whom Asikitams commended for professionally overseeing the election was the one that issued a certificate of return to Sukubo as the winner of the election.
Princewill further maintained that those who unleashed terror at the Abuloma venue of the election were cultists well identified by their chants of: “Aro Mate,” and Gbu War,” among others.
It was also gathered that the cultists stormed the venue of the election to prevent Sukubo’s delegates from voting in the election, in order for Asikitams to win the election.
A situation room report released by IYC over the conduct of the election dated September 14 quoted Jonathan Lokpobiri as thanking the conventional security agencies for ensuring that the election was successful.
The recent statements credited to Asikitams which were aired by a radio station in Port Harcourt have been disproven by reliable facts check.
Asikitams said he was unjustly screened out of the selection process by his people and Sukubo was consequently chosen ahead of him to be the solely endorsed aspirant from the Kalabari ethnic nationality for the election.
To put the records straight, Asikitams was disqualified by his people because when he was chairman, IYC Kalabari Se-Ikpangi, he led a protest with the IYC flag in support of the move orchestrated by the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike to illegally elongate the tenure of LG chairmen and councilors in Rivers State.
The action of Asikitams was declared anti-IYC and if he was endorsed to contest the IYC Eastern Zone election and eventually won, he would use the IYC platform to promote the political interest of Wike who had once asked Thunder to fire the Ijaw National Congress when he (Wike) was governor of Rivers State.
