According to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Presidential Campaign Council, Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike is a threat to the nation’s democracy and the peace of the South-South state.
During a news conference in Asaba on Tuesday, Charles Aniagwu, spokesman for the PDP Presidential Campaign Council, claimed that Wike goes around hounding people who disagree with him.
The campaign council slammed the governor for criticizing Atiku’s meeting with Rivers leaders in Abuja and accused him of making the party’s presidential campaign impossible to hold in the state.
It urged Nigerians to be wary of the undemocratic behavior of some state governors, including Wike, who refuses to allow opposition parties to campaign or hold meetings in their states.
As a result, the council urged Rivers residents and Nigerians to vote for the Atiku-Okowa ticket to rescue the country from its current predicament, rather than listening to Wike’s alleged endorsement of the All Progressives Congress (APC) flagbearer, Bola Tinubu.
The statement reads:
Wike is quarrelling on why we are meeting the Rivers State people i outside the state and claiming that those persons are not Rivers people. We met with critical stakeholders of Rivers who we believe would be able to talk to their people in Rivers for them to understand that Atiku and Okowa value them.
But that Wike made it practically impossible for us to come to Rivers to campaign. And because we do believe that if we want to come to Rivers to campaign, giving Wike’s position, he could take steps that would undermine the survival of a number of persons.That we are not ready to do.
This is because we are very clear on the fact that our ambition is not worth the life of anybody, no matter how lowly placed that person may be. But we do know that our people in Rivers are very clear on the fact that Atiku means well.
If Wike, rather than adding value to the human resources in Rivers, continues to deploy its resourcesto begin to insult every well-meaning Nigerian who have disagreed with him; Atiku is not going to take that path.
We will by the grace of God, embark on the process of recovery, embark on the process of developing all parts of this country and making every Nigerian, including our brothers in Rivers, feel that they are Nigerians.
So if anybody is thinking that because he has disagreed with us that we will come after them when elected, that is not going to be because it’s not part of our manifesto.
Governor Wike is asking his people to vote for a candidate who will protect him and not a candidate who will add value to the lives of the people of Rivers; you can see how selfish he has become.
The PDP campaign portrayed the party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, as a democrat who wants to bring unity to the country and ensure that all of the country’s component units function properly.
It stated that despite Wike’s opposition to the Atiku-Okowa ticket, Atiku would not hold the Rivers Governor or any of his allies accountable if elected.
The statement reads:
Atiku is a democrat and he knows that not everybody will agree with him in this election. By the grace of God, if elected, Atiku has no business running after Wike because that is not part of our manifesto.
Atiku wants to bring unity to this country. He wants to bring back the jobs, he wants all the component units of this country to function effectively, he is interested in education that works for all of us; and above all, Atiku is interested in bringing back security so that our people can sleep with their two eyes closed.
So I want Wike to be rest assured that Atiku and Okowa are in this election because of the need to address the many challenges confronting our country.