Rerun: Amaechi’s former aide denies complicity in killing of DSP, others
Hon. Augustine Onyekachi Wokocha, a former aide of the Minister of Transport, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, has strongly denied complicity in the killing of police officer, DSP Mohammed Alkali, that was gruesomely murdered along with his driver, Mr. Peter Uchi, during the December 10 2016, rerun election in Rivers State.
Wokocha who has served in various capacities in the state as a member of the Rivers State House of Assembly and later as Commissioner for Power during the tenure of former Governor Chibuike Amaechi, said in a press conference in Port Harcourt, Thursday, that his accusers were merely on a campaign of calumny against him.
He said that on the day of the rerun election he received a phone call that some PDP agents wanted to hijack election materials, saying that as a collation agent, he went out to ascertain the authenticity of the report. He added that he and the boys with him were accosted and arrested on their way for ‘loitering’ by a policeman who, he believed, was working for his political opponents, only for him to be released around 5pm after the elections were over.
The former commissioner for Power stated that eventually he was not able to move to the ward to protect the voting materials he was supposed to protect due to the action of the policeman who prevented him from getting to his ward.
The former commissioner, a die-hard member of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in the state, told journalists that he had never, in his entire life, been associated with politics of violence and called on concerned citizens in and outside the state to check his records.
“Since we decided to join APC in 2010, there has been several attacks on my person and my community by those who have other political persuasions. In their desperation to prove their supremacy, they recruited boys who allegedly committed several murders of many APC members including Chief C. Adube and six members of his household, Chief G. Ahiaidu, Mr. Clever Orokwowu (APC LGA youth leader) Mr. Frank Obi (APC ward 4 Chairman) his pregnant wife and teenage son, Nwachkwu Levi Orekegba from my community (Okposi) among others and made the local government ungovernable for us,” he stated.
The APC chieftain said that due to the mayhem unleashed on his community by the suspected sponsored cultists, many of his kinsmen that fled the community were still living as refugees in other parts of the state.
Recalling the violence that characterized the Ogba-Egbema LGA in the state before, during, and after the 2015 general elections in the state, he said: “At the last count we had lost more than 200 party members.”
Hon. Wokocha alleged that the same people who were disturbing the peace of the community and who were alleged to have masterminded some of the high profile killings were now enjoying amnesty from the PDP-led state government.
Continuing, he alleged: “It is, therefore, condemnable that these same characters extended their dastardly acts to the law enforcement agents who came to maintain peace during the December 10th legislative rerun elections. What I find most shocking and amazing!….however, in this sad, regrettable and ignoble act and situation, is the determination of the leadership of the mischief makers to ensure that this ‘one killing too many’ on the 10th of December 2016, of our dear lawmen be credited to my person.”
According to him, there was no iota of truth in the accusations leveled against him, describing them as mere fabrications, adding that on the day of that election, he conducted himself peacefully throughout the exercise, in spite of all provocations and urged the law enforcement agencies to thoroughly investigate those allegations to ensure that the truth was laid bare.
He concluded: “I have chosen the path of rectitude from birth, in defense of my responsible pedigree, those who have chosen the path of crime and infamy must have the courage to stand and own up to their acts. Cowardice is a horrible vice to add to vicious criminality.”
