RIVERS RERUN: WIKE, AMAECHI CLASH AT POLICE STATION

The tension-soaked legislative rerun election in Rivers State yesterday took a dramatic dimension when the state governor, Chief  Nyesom Wike, and his predecessor and now minister of transportation, Mr Rotimi Amaechi, engaged in an open confrontation at the Mile 1 Police Station in Port Harcourt.

Trouble was said to have begun on Saturday after the collation officer of ward 10, Port Harcourt local government, Ekwi Adebisa, allegedly went missing with the result sheet. She was later arrested by the police and taken to the station.

Party supporters who had been monitoring the situation informed their leaders that Adebisa had been brought to the station.

Shortly after her arrival, Amaechi showed up in the company of the newly appointed director-general of the Nigerian Maritime Safety Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr Dakuku Peterside, who had lost the governorship contest to Chief Wike in the last general election; All Progressives Congress (APC) chairman in Rivers state, Davis Ikanya; acting managing director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Ibim Semenitari, and some APC officials.

LEADERSHIP learned that Wike also stormed the station with some of his party men and both sides engaged in a shouting match.

The police, however, called the two parties to a meeting. Journalists were barred from attending.