Atiku’s Posters Missing As Wike, Rivers PDP, Begin 4/5 Campaign

Posters and photographs of the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, were missing on the party’s branded vehicles as Governor Nyesom Wike led the Rivers State chapter of the party on a campaign to win four of the five (4/5) positions on offer at the ballot in the forthcoming General Election.

The four positions the Rivers PDP will be focusing on are House of Assembly, governor, House of Representatives and Senate positions. Governor Nyesom Wike in leaving out the presidential contest from the campaigns said that Atiku does not need Rivers PDP in his quest to win.

The sight of the branded vehicles at the PDP campaign council secretariat, located along Woji Road in GRA, Port Harcourt, was a confirmation that crisis within the party is yet to abate. The state campaign council, has former state PDP chairman, Felix Obuah as director-general while Governor Wike is chairman.

Wike, along with other governors including Governors Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State, Samuel Ortom of Benue State, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State and Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, have demanded that Ayu should resign and his replacement chosen from the South before they would support Atiku’s campaign.

Speaking during the flag off, Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, said he would not campaign for Atiku because he appointed enemies of the state into his campaign council. He said they would only campaign for the party’s governorship candidate, the senatorial candidates, and others who carried them along, Wike said in justifying the decision to leave out Atiku in the 4/5 campaign.

“If they want us to be involved in the campaign, they will come and tell us. If he (Atiku) thinks we are important, they will come and meet us,” the governor maintained, adding that nobody can intimidate Rivers when he is still governor of the state.

He pointed to how the PDP presidential candidate picked people from Rivers State as members of the presidential campaign council without any input from him, which means they did not want the state to be part of what they were doing.

“The presidential candidate entered Rivers State and picked those he wants to pick without the contribution of the governor. So, they said they don’t need me to campaign for them, they don’t need Rivers people to campaign for them. Will you force yourself on them?” I have never seen how people will disrespect a state like Rivers State and go and choose those who are enemies of the State, without the contribution from us. So, let’s campaign for those who have told us to campaign for them here in the state, the governorship candidate, the senatorial candidates and others,” Wike said in reference to the 4/5 campaign in Rivers that leaves out Atiku.

Governor Wike decried how the state had been treated in the past despite the bulk votes delivered to the PDP since 1999.  According to him, people could not continue to demand for Rivers votes and yet be unwilling to accommodate its interest.

“Politics is a game of interest. If nobody accommodates the interest of Rivers State, then we have nothing to do with such people. If you say  that you have no interest in Rivers State, Rivers State will not have your own interest. It is only those who like us that we will like

He told members of the  campaign council to have a different mindset because the strategies to be adopted for the 2023 election would not be like what they had known.

He stated that PDP in Rivers State had done well for the people, with such feat attested to by President Muhammadu Buhari, which made it more difficult for any party to have a chance of winning the election in the State.

The alternate chairman of the Rivers PDP campaign council, Ferdinand Alabraba, said they were determined to do their best to deliver the consolidation team of the New Rivers Vision.

State chairman of the PDP, Desmond Akawor, described the day as the start of the process of bringing on board a new team of leaders in the State.

With additional reports from Sun

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