The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has announced its decision to put off its presidential campaign rally in Rivers State slated for Tuesday, February 14, 2023, due to the rise in attacks on its members and supporters of its presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.
Addressing journalists in Port Harcourt on Monday, chairman of the PDP Presidential Campaign Council in the State, Senator Lee Maeba, said Governor Nyesom Ezenwo Wike had already declared members of the campaign council and Atiku supporters in the state as enemies of the State.
Maeba stated that supporters of the PDP presidential candidate in the state have been suffering different forms of life-threatening attacks from May 2022 when Wike lost the party’s presidential ticket to Atiku.
He said: “It is therefore instructive to note that this directive has direction in the vituperation of overt act of Governor Nyesom Ezenwo Wike. In this instance, he has openly branded members of the PDP Presidential Campaign Council and all supporters of the presidential candidate as enemies of the state and vowed to crush them. Video evidence are abound to support our assertion.
“He admitted carrying out that attack on Dr. Abiye Sekibo and Senator Lee Maeba in his earlier statement at Eleme during a gubernatorial campaign rally on Friday, February 10, 2023.
“He boosted that the two armed robbers, Dr. Abiye Sekibo and Senator Lee Maeba were chased away when they came to take a land belonging to the Rivers State government and they are lucky they ran away before his arrival at the scene. He tried to make an unimpressive denial which does not hold water the next day.
“In the light of the above submission, we the state campaign council, in total constructive engagement with the National Presidential Campaign Council, the candidate and the party, haven seen and evaluated the bodily harm and potential death threats, believe that no lose of life can be tolerated, accepted before, during and after the presidential election and agree with our principals on the need to shelve and or cancel the rally to avoid any death because the victory of Atiku Abubakar does not deserve spilling of the blood of even one citizen of Rivers State.
“This may be painful, but is the best decision to take as no human death can be excused on the insistence of hosting a rally due to the brigandage which the security agencies have not been able to break in and restore confidence, security wise, on the populace and our members.
“Finally, we pray the President and Commander-in-Chief, President Muhammadu Buhari, act decisively as the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria by instructing and making sure that the security agencies do their job in an impartial manner that will restore confidence and buy into free and fair election as he has variously mentioned that he will ensure that no thug, no government will stand in the way of free and fair election. And to also ensure they nobody use his resources to purchase Nigerians to get into the Presidency.”