Obanikoro, Amaechi in ‘Twitter War’ over Rivers Guber Poll

The simmering political differences between the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Musiliu Obanikoro, a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has taken another dimension as they are now locked in a war of words on the micro-blogging online site, Twitter.
The crux of their ‘war’ is the April 11 governorship election in the country. There have been allegations and counter-allegations of electoral malpractice from both political parties against each other. In Lagos, the home state of Obanikoro, the PDP had, immediately after the APC governorship candidate, Akinwunmi Ambode, was declared the winner, rejected the result, accusing APC of electoral fraud, including ballot box snatching.
Obanikoro contested the PDP primary for the governorship ticket but lost to Jimi Agbaje, who lost the election to Ambode. The same scenario played out in Rivers, home state of Amaechi, APC Presidential Campaign Director, where his party rejected the result which gave victory to the PDP governorship candidate, Nyesom Wike, a former minister, amidst allegations of ballot box snatching, intimidation, killing, and interference from the Presidency, through the First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan. Amaechi’s favoured candidate in the election, was Dr. Dakuku Peterside.
Obanikoro, had, in a tweet, on Monday night, announced that he had congratulated Ambode as the Lagos State Governor-elect, and advised Amaechi, and his “cotravellers”, to emulate his sports were 4manship and congratulate Wike as the Governor-elect of Rivers State.
“I congratulated Ambode, based on the larger interest of Lagos State. Amaechi and his co-travellers in Rivers State, should learn from this,” he said.
This advice did not go down well with Amaechi who replied Obanikoro the next day saying: “If your values are so debased and rotten, that you saw nothing wrong with the election in Rivers State, mine is not. Never will. Because of the larger interest of Rivers State, I, and most Rivers people, will not accept that daylight robbery ‘they’ called election”.
He stated further, “The election was a sham, a disgrace, an affront on democracy. Please read the reports of the (European Union) EU and other (Independent National Electoral Commission) INEC-accredited election observers, before you open your mouth to spew rubbish. If your values are so debased and rotten that you saw nothing wrong with the elections in Rivers State, mine are not. Never will.”
The very next day, Obanikoro, responded, describing Amaechi’s agitations as “senseless”. “If you, EU and other observers, can be blind to the massive underage votings in the North, and an over two million votes in Kano, without a single voided vote recorded, then saving your people the senseless agitation for personal gains is meaningful.
“Don’t also forget the history of how you became (the) Governor of Rivers State.”
The Rivers governorship election has continued to generate controversy and comments from various quarters, including the European Union election observers, who described the election as a sham.