Rivers State governor, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike and the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state are at daggers drawn over the former’s comments on the minister of Transportation, Mr. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi.
Wike had described Amaechi as a dictator who must be stopped at next month’s general elections in the state, but the APC wondered if the governor, who was rge chief of staff to Amaechi when the minister served as governor during his first tenure, was a product of the alleged dictatorial tendencies.
At yesterday’s dedication of the 2019 Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) campaigns at the Cathedral Church of Saint Paul, Port Harcourt, Wike said that the people of Rivers would use the general elections to end the dictatorial tendencies of political godfathers in the state.
He said that Rivers politics cannot be controlled by any single politician because it is not in the Southwest where a political godfather has usurped the mandate of the people.
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Wike said: “If you allow Rivers State to be like one of the states in the Southwest, we will all suffer for it. Luckily for us, we don’t speak one language. Therefore, it is very difficult for any leader from an ethnic nationality to control the entire state. In that Southwest state, a political godfather says something against a sitting governor and it happened. This year will be the end of dictatorial tendencies in our politics.”
In a swift reaction, the state APC publicity secretary, Senibo Chris Finebone, said that Wike would lose the governorship election on the first ballot, pointing out that the governor had already conditioned himself for that reality.
Finebone said: “Nothing can be farther from the truth than what governor Wike said. Is Wike saying that he was a product of such alleged dictatorial tendency when he emerged as chief of staff to the then governor Amaechi in 2007?
“It must be on record that governor Wike will lose the 2019 election on the first ballot. There’s no two ways to it and he knows it. It is possible that he has already conditioned himself to that reality and merely talking tough just to cover up his true state of mind,” he said.
