Wike Disowns Trending Audio Tape

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Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike, has disowned the trending audio clip on his involvement in electoral malpractices in the last re-run elections.

A statement by his Special Assistant on Electronic Media, Mr. Simeon Nwakaudu, on Friday in Abuja, said the governor denied the content of the tape on.

He denied speaking to anyone  during an interactive session with national correspondents in Port Harcourt.

He argued that the audio clip was fabricated using audio software.

He stressed that he never spoke with any electoral officer or anyone for that matter, either in person or over the phone seeking to influence the elections.

“When you look at certain things, you just laugh. At no time did I speak to any electoral officer, let alone issue threats to any electoral officer.

“I never spoke with anybody, I never threatened anybody. Nobody can say that he sat with me or that I threatened him or how.

“ Let any electoral officer come forward to say that Ì call him or her on phone.’’

In the aftermath of the rerun elections in Rivers State, Wike was quick to accuse the All Progressives Congress, the police, INEC and the army of ‘rigging’.

But a phone tape trending online that showed that it was Wike himself that was the big culprit and that he had paid an unspecified amount to officials of INEC to rig for his party’s candidates.

According to an online report, Wike was caught on tape as he spoke with an official of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), threatening them to rig the elections as he had arranged or ‘not leave the state’ alive.

According to SaharaReporters, Wike arranged with INEC officials, particularly those sent from Plateau State, to rig the election for candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Etche, Khana, Ikwerre and other key local government areas in the state.

“One of Mr. Wike’s phone calls went to a female INEC official who was complaining that the money offered by the governor was not sufficient for the rigging task. An infuriated Governor Wike told the woman that he had already paid the electoral coordinator in Plateau State.

“At one point in the conversation, when Governor Wike was told that one of the electoral officers was reluctant to sign one of the result sheets, the governor threatened to demand his money back from the recalcitrant official.