As political drama in Rivers State continues to unfold ahead of the 2015 elections, a group under the auspices of Rivers Mainstream Coalition has said that the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) risks losing 2 million votes in the state if the party hierarchy goes ahead with the imposition of Nyesom Wike, former minister of State for Education.
According to the group, there is sufficient basis to believe that the national leadership of the PDP may have been influenced by an exclusive and powerful rich cartel of desperate political collaborators hell-bent on installing an Ikwere man to succeed Governor Rotimi Amaechi who is also an Ikwere man against the decade’s old power sharing formula in the state.
Israel Owate, coordinator of the group, who spoke at a press conference in Abuja, said: “Violating this order with impunity to exclude other major ethnic groups of Ijaws and Ogonis is a grave risk the PDP can ill afford heading into 2015.”
He revealed that “it is on record that the gubernatorial screening panel for Rivers State disqualified twelve (12) governorship aspirants including topmost contenders on the spurious, came up with the frivolous allegations that these aspirants were not members of the PDP in Rivers state. Yet these are well known party stalwarts who had been issued the intent and nomination forms by the national organ of the party…”
Owate stated categorically that “there is ample evidence that the imposition of Wike to succeed Amaechi shall cause deep geo-political imbalance, trigger negative reactions from other ethnic groups and threaten the peace, stability and unity of Rivers state including the electoral fortunes of the PDP.”
Continuing, he added that though the PDP still has highly respected stakeholders across the state that can collectively defeat the APC in all elections, but lamented that most of these capable leaders have been excluded on grounds that they refused to endorse Wike’s ambition.
The coordinator noted that the tragedy that would befall the party by imposing Wike could only be averted by ensuring that other ethnic groups in the state are not extremely incensed by the intolerable prospect of being subjugated to the slavery of having another Ikwere person to succeed Amaechi.
It stressed that a handful of politicians are determined on driving the state on the part of crisis, stating that the group as the vanguard of the people has the higher sense of duty to God and humanity to alert Nigerians and the entire world of the looming disaster.
The group therefore, called on President Goodluck Jonathan to among others prevail on the party to adhere to the policy of rotation and zoning of party and elective offices, and to openly declare the zone that produced the incumbent governor of the state is excluded has been done in Akwa Ibom, Ebonyi, Adamawa and Enugu States.
“We make bold to state that Rivers people are determined more than before to take their destiny in their own hands and are prepared to make the necessary sacrifices to stop the political desperados from bastardising and destroying our economy and harmony,” the group said.
Harrison Edeh
