Rivers: Buhari apologizes over election violence, killings. **As Wike condoles with Army over death of soldiers

    Rivers: Buhari apologizes over election violence, killings.
    **As Wike condoles with Army over death of soldiers
    President Muhammadu Buhari, has apologized to Nigerians over the ill-tempered elections conducted under his watch in Kogi, Bayelsa and Rivers states even as he described Rivers State as the most deadly state in the federation.

    Speaking at the National Executive Committee, NEC, meeting of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Abuja, the president said the administration had so far raked N3 trillion into the Treasury Single Account, TSA.

    The president urged party supporters to stay the course, saying that progress was being made on all fronts, from the economy to the security situation in the country.

    Buhari charged Nigerians to rise to the situation as he particularly warned militants in the Niger Delta that continuous sabotage of oil facilities was doing the people more harm than good.
    Appealing for understanding from party members, Buhari dismissed allegations from critics that he had turned a globetrotter.
    On conflicting signals from Niger Delta regarding militancy, he said: “Some have said they are ready to drop their arms and join the rest of the nation to build it. But part of them are still sabotaging installations which is making investments in that lucrative area of Nigeria difficult because nobody will submit his riches to financial institutions, get money only to suffer huge loss.

    “So, the environment for investment is being sabotaged by us, Nigerians. We are doing our best with the military by trying to persuade them to join the rest of the country because in unity lies our strength.

    Calling on Nigerians to sustain the democratic enterprise through maintaining their Permanent Voter Cards, PVCs, the president offered profuse apologies for the ill-tempered elections held in Kogi, Bayelsa and Rivers states.

    “I am afraid I did not succeed in the election in Kogi, Bayelsa, and Rivers. I think that more Nigerians are killed or killed themselves in Rivers than in any particular state. At this stage of our political development, to remain brutal is shameful and as a government, I promise we will do something by the next general election.

    Meanwhile, the Rivers State Government has condoled with the Nigerian Army over the death of a Major and another soldier killed by sea pirates on the high sea in Abonnema, Akuku Toru Local Government Area of the state before the last re-run elections.
    Governot Nyesom Wike who visited the Brigade Commander, 2 Amphibious Brigade, Brigadier General Stephenson Olabanji, at his office in Port Harcourt, urged the Army to endeavour to unmask those behind the killings for prosecution.
    The governor said that the state government will be involved in the burial of the soldiers, adding that it will also assist families of the deceased.
    The Brigade Commander, Brigadier General Olabanji, who thanked the governor for the visit, said that two suspects had been arrested for the killings, stressing that the Army will certainly track those behind the incident.
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