Real Reason We Want Secondus Out – Wike

Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State has said that the Prince Uche Secondus led National Working Committee, NWC cannot lead the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP to election victory in 2023, hence the agitation to replace it.

Speaking on a national television in Port Harcourt on Tuesday, Governor Wike stated that the PDP remains the only credible alternative party that Nigerians are expecting to take over power in 2023, given the woeful performance of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC.

“If you go to the public and ask Nigerians if PDP is ready to take over power in 2023,  if you take referendum,  you will know that Nigerians are even waiting for PDP. But the fear of Nigerians is whether PDP is ready to take over power. So,  people are concerned about it. Obviously, it is ripe for PDP to take over, but you must be prepared to take over.

“And we said with what we have now, it will  be difficult to take over power in 2023 if there are no amendment. Leadership was the problem. The point is this, the current NWC, as it is today,  cannot lead the party to victory. Nobody has said they have not done well,  one way or the other, but we are talking about the challenges ahead.

“That is why we are pushing for the party to have other people to lead the party and to give it a different strength altogether.  If you know APC,  you know that you need a robust,  determined leadership of the party (PDP) to make sure you match them word by word,  action by action.”

Governor Wike said anyone who loves the PDP and means well for the party will adhere to the resolutions reached after the intervention of the governors, Board of Trustees and elders to douse brewing crisis in the party.

The governor dismissed insinuation that he is nurturing a presidential ambition, hence his opposition to the current NWC. He stated that his primary preoccupation is to see how the PDP could be better positioned to win the 2023 general elections.

On the issue of the amended Electoral Act, the governor said Nigerians are expecting President Mohammadu Buhari to veto the bill over the rejection of electronic transmission of election results by APC members in the  National Assembly.

The Governor accused President Buhari  of supporting the position of APC members in the National Assembly  even after he had attested publicly on how he benefitted from the introduction of card reader device by former President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration.

He stressed that the electronic transmission of results is at the centre of conducting credible and transparent election, and it behoves the  President to bequeath  to Nigerians a credible electoral process as he had promised.

The governor also wondered why the Senate committee chairman on INEC, who recommended the transmission of electoral results electronically, voted against it.

Governor Wike commended the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill into law, but declared that allocation of a meagre 3 percent for host communities in the Niger Delta is unacceptable.

“We believe that 3 percent is not enough as regards the kind of pollution and environmental crisis we have had because of oil exploitation.  I thought what Mr. President would have done was to tell members of National Assembly, yes, you have done what you are supposed, but again, you need to take into consideration the yearnings of the host communities.”

Speaking the issue of Valued Added Tax, Governor Wike clarified that the Rivers State government went to court to seek constitutional interpretation of the enabling law on whether State or Federal Government should be the sole collector of VAT.

He stressed that the Rivers State government is not perturbed by the decision of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) to appeal the Federal High Court judgment which declared that it is unconstitutional for the Federal Government to collect VAT.

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