Breaking: Atiku’s PCC, APC backers, linked to plan to bribe UNIPORT students
The PDP Presidential Campaign Council and its collaborators in the APC are planning to lure students of the University of Port Harcourt out of their classrooms in exchange for cash.
The idea is to induce the students with money to participate in the forthcoming rally, which will be held at the school’s sporting complex on the 11th of February.
Already, there are increasing reactions among UNIPORT students over allegations that the sum of N5000 naira purportedly budgeted for them is being tampered with by certain persons.
The Port Harcourt Telegraph has gathered through multiple sources that the alleged bribery plan which is raising some dust is coming in the wake of the adoption of the sporting facility belonging to the institution as the venue of the proposed rally.
Recall that the Rivers State Government had earlier issued a revocation order canceling the approval it gave for the use of the Adokiye Amiesimaka Stadium by the PDP Presidential Campaign Council.
“The plan”, a source disclosed, “is to lure them (students) to abandon their classes and join in the proposed rally.
We have equally learnt that the University’s Vice Chancellor may not be part of the plan which has been allegedly arranged with the University Governing Council led by Chief Andrew Uchendu, an APC chieftain.
“The attention of the university community has been drawn to moves by members of the Presidential Campaign Council of the PDP to bribe some of our students”, a lecturer who teaches Political Science told this publication Thursday afternoon.
Telegraph investigations have revealed that a meeting was recently held at the residence of a former Minister who is a member of the APC.
In that meeting, the decision to use the sports ground of the University of Port Harcourt was reached.
That meeting, we have discovered, was also attended by some members of the Atiku Campaign Organization who are operating under the auspices of the PCC.
Chief Andrew Uchendu, an active member of the APC, according to what we have pieced together, was reportedly directed to secure the sporting facility for the impending rally.
It was similarly agreed at the said meeting to induce students of the institution to participate in the proposed rally in order to beef up the crowd.
We have also learnt through a member of the APC who has knowledge of the meeting that “the students would be made to wear vests emblazoned with party colours and the face of the candidate (Atiku).
A high ranking PDP official who spoke anonymously lamented,”We are alarmed at the level of moral bankruptcy displayed by these desperate politicians.
“It is shameful that in order to cover up for their inadequacy, they are planning to lure students out of the classroom to participate in a political rally while their own children are busy studying in choice institutions.
“We are ashamed that the architects of this plan are Rivers people who know that these students have lost time because of the ASUU strike which went on for several months.
“Against this backdrop, we urge students of the University of Port Harcourt to take the money that they are receiving and stay put in their classrooms.
Parents and guardians in Rivers State whose children and wards are attending the University of Port Harcourt are worried stiff.
Some of them, from information that is filtering in, are reaching out to their children and wards to stay away from the proposed rally.
One parent said, “We sent our children to school to learn, not to engage in politics. I think it is wrong for the school authorities to agree to host a political rally in a learning environment.
Another appealed to the University authorities, especially the leadership of the Governing Council, to avoid anything that would cause confusion and endanger the lives of their children and wards.
As things are, students of the institution are already disagreeing among themselves with plans that are on hand to turn their school into a political rally ground, going by the kind of posts that are gradually appearing on Facebook and other social media handles.