The Rivers State Presidential Campaign Council of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has stated that they will not use the Adokiye Amiesimaka Stadium for campaigns unless they have written permission from Governor Nyesom Wike.
In a recent interview, the council’s spokesperson, Leloonu Nwibubasa, accused Wike of being unstable.
WITHIN NIGERIA recalls that Wike reapproved the Adokiye Amiesimaka Stadium as the venue for Atiku Abubakar’s Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Presidential campaign rally in the state.
Previously, the governor withdrew the initial approval of February 11 on the grounds that the PDP Presidential Campaign Organization is working in collaboration with the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state on January 31.
According to Wike, the PDP Presidential Campaign Organization intended to share the approved facility with the APC, whose activities are marked by violence and destruction.
However, speaking at the state PDP Campaign Rally in the Ogu/Bolo Local Government Area on Tuesday, Wike stated that the government reapproved the use of the venue after numerous personalities petitioned the government.
However, according to Nwibubasa, a former Commissioner for Employment Generation and Economic Empowerment in Rivers State, Wike sent his letter of revocation of approval to the presidential campaign council in Abuja and has not written any other letter negating his previous letter, so they can’t just take his word on the surface unless he communicates directly with them.
Speaking to Punch about Rivers State politics, the presidential campaign spokesperson said the re-approval isn’t exciting because it was done verbally from the campaign podium and they have yet to receive any official letter to that effect.
In his words;
We heard about it on Tuesday during one of the PDP governorship campaign rallies when Governor Nyesom Wike said on the podium that some people had pleaded with him to rescind his decision and based on that, he had re-approved the use of the stadium.
Governor Wike wrote to the presidential campaign council in Abuja to rescind his decision on the approval for us to use the venue.
That official letter is still there until he writes to the PCC that he has re-approved the use of the place. We can’t just take his word for it knowing that the governor has displayed a high level of instability over the last couple of months. So, we don’t see it as anything exciting, except we have written approval from him.