By Francis Nwaorgu
Wirth defeat staring him in the face, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate for the April 11 governorship polls in Rivers State, Chief Nyesome Wike, has made overtures to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), seeking to negotiate his future after the expected victory of the APC candidate, Dr. Dakuku Peterside. Rivers APC Chairman, Dr. Davies Ibiamu Ikanya, revealed in Port Harcourt on Thursday that Chief Wike had reached out to him through his running mate, Dr. (Mrs.) Ipalibo Banigo, making the following requests:
1. That APC should not go to the Election Tribunal over the National Assembly election of 28th March awarded to PDP candidates.
2. That Governor Chibuike Amaechi should prevail on the President-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari, not to probe his activities as junior Minister of Education and that Dr. Peterside, upon assumption of office as governor, should not probe his office when he served as the Chief of Staff to Governor Amaechi.
3. That he be allowed to nominate three members of his Grassroot Democratic Initiative (GDI) as Commissioners in the cabinet of Dr. Peterside.
To show the seriousness of Chief Nyesome Wike on this, he has asked the people of Rivers State to vote out all PDP candidates in the April 11 polls. The attached audio tape says it all.
Dr. Ikanya said in a statement that he was non-committal after being contacted by Dr. Banigo but rather advised that Chief Wike should bring up these issues after the election of April 11th as it is already too late to go into negotiation with regard to the polls.
Ikanya in the statement maintained that all the stolen National Assembly seats by PDP would be retrieved through the Election Tribunal as APC cannot allow illegal occupants to represent Rivers State in the National Assembly.
The Rivers APC Chairman advised the electorate to troop out on Saturday and vote for Dakuku Peterside. He said that apart from saving Rivers State from PDP-induced violence, occultism and worship of the devil, an APC victory in the governorship election would mean aligning the Rivers State Government and the entire State with the incoming APC-led Federal Government and to attract the following benefits to the State:
1. Urgent re-modeling and completion of the Port Harcourt International Airport Omagwa.
2. Reimbursement of over N100 Billion owed Rivers State by the Federal Government.
3. Further investments into and commencement of Train 7 of the NLNG project Bonny to create more employment opportunities for Rivers State indigenes.
4. Construction of the Bodo-Bomu-Bonny Road, completion of the East-West Road and the rehabilitation of Rivers State section of the Port Harcourt-Aba Road.
5. Return of the Soku oil wells and other oil wells to Rivers State.
Dr. Ikanya commended and congratulated former Governor of Rivers State, Chief Rufus Ada George, for advising people of the State to vote APC in order to align the State with the incoming APC Federal Government for the rapid development of the State.
“We pray and hope that the good people of Rivers State will adhere to this wise counsel and ensure that we don’t have a government in Rivers State that will antagonist against the APC Government at the centre. With PDP members joining APC in droves in order to salvage our nation, it is unthinkable that any right-thinking Rivers person should be contemplating wasting his vote on the doomed PDP and its candidates in the April 11 elections,” Ikanya stated.
For some strategic reasons, the rally slated to hold on 10th April, 2015 to accept the 10,000 PDP defectors will no longer hold. This is to avoid running fowl of the electoral laws that says that campaigns or rallies should not hold 24hours to the date of an election. The event will now take place after the election of April 11th at a date that will be used to celebrate the APC’s victory as expected.
