By Nwaorgu Faustinus
The All Progressives Congress (APC), Ricers State Chapter, has unequivocally condemned an alleged plot by the gubernatorial candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the State, Chief Nyesome Wike, to criminally clone Rivers APC governorship candidate, Dr. Dakuku Adol Peterside, with a view to demonising him. Rivers APC in a statement issued Wednesday in Port Harcourt by the Chairman, Dr. Davies Ibiamu Ikanya, quoted one of those commissioned to carry out the evil plot but who decided to back out as his conscience would not allow him to harm an innocent man like Dr. Peterside, as revealing: “We have been commissioned to do a documentary using the picture of Dakuku Peterside and a different body, to be presented in awkward positions and involved in violent as well as fetish activities.
“We have been given pictures of some bad roads in Port Harcourt to portray Peterside as having failed as a Commissioner of Works in Rivers State and not worthy to govern the State. Some documents have been forged, alleged to have emanated from the Ministry of Works, National Assembly and some other departments, to present Peterside as a corrupt person. We have gone very far on the project but have the challenge of getting somebody who has the same shape and body like Peterside and the technology available to us to produce a very convincing documentary is posing a serious challenge to accomplish this project; so Chief Wike has directed that after we get all the parts together in our studio at Wuse Zone 2, Abuja, he will fly us out to put all the missing parts together. However, I am a Christian and my faith does not support such an evil act against an innocent man; that is why I am backing out not minding that my life is on the line.”
Dr. Ikanya recalled that Wike once boasted that at the appropriate time, he would ‘expose’ the APC gubernatorial candidate, Dr. Peterside. “This is obviously one of the ways he intends to go about it, having come face-to-face with his overwhelming rejection by all the segments of Rivers State, including even his own party, PDP. Besides, Wike is coming to terms with the fact that promotion of violence in the State will not make him the Governor but that awful defeat awaits him at the polls in the hands of Dr. Dakuku Peterside on 28th February, 2015,” Ikanya said.
Continuing, the Rivers APC Chairman said: “We once alerted the public of the plot by Chief Wike to clone our agenda for the future of Rivers State titled ‘Road Map To Prosperity’ and, true to our fears, he went ahead to clone the document and shamelessly present it to the public. We are, however, not ready to tolerate this new phase of criminality which involves the cloning of our gubernatorial candidate. In this regard, we have instructed our lawyers to be on standby to sue Chief Wike and any media outfit that allows itself to be used to air such a defamatory documentary.
“It is sad that instead of Chief Wike running an issues-based campaign, he prefers to mount a campaign of acrimony and calumny. According to him, ‘So far I have been rejected by Rivers State people and my party has traded off my mandate by making Rivers State people to vote for Jonathan and vote Dakuku, I will make sure that Dakuku is disgraced out of the race’.
“As much as we sympathise with Wike over his plight, we urge him to tread cautiously as we all shall continue to live together as brothers and sisters after the elections. We know that Chief Wike has no programme for the future of Rivers State apart from promoting violence and attempting to buy the governorship with ill-gotten money but we wish to counsel him to accept defeat in good faith and allow peace to prevail in our State as we have nothing to gain in destroying and maiming the people we are striving to govern.
“We urge the good people of Rivers State to join us to condemn this desperate, wicked and abhorrent plot to destroy the hard-earned reputation of Dr. Peterside, who is well known as a god-fearing man who has refused to soil his hands in any way.
“Finally, we urge our teeming supporters and the entire Rivers State people to continue to support APC, Dr. Peterside and our other candidates as we have never disappointed the State and will never disappoint it, either now or in the future.”
