Rivers State governor Nyesom Ezenwo Wike has said conscientious effort will be made to rebuild the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) after the general election.
He hinted that irrespective of the antics of those who fragmented the party in a bid to achieve their inordinate ambition, he and other like minds will remain in politics to help rebuild PDP to a formidable political party.
Wike spoke yesterday during the inauguration of the 10 kilometre internal roads constructed by his administration in Igwuruta town of Ikwerre local government area of the state.
The governor, who is the leader of the G-5 governors said after the general election, those who violated the provisions of the PDP constitution for rotation of elective and appointive offices will be shown the way out of the party.
Wike said, “We have finished the first phase of the war, we are going to the second phase of the war. In the second phase of the war, we must chase out the buccaneers and vampires. We are going to chase them out of the party, take our party and rebuild our party.
“These people left our party in 2014/2015 and our party lost in the election. Again, they have come back, our party has lost again. They have destroyed our party. We are going to chase them out of our party. They have no role to play in our party.”
The governor said it is hypocritical for the national leadership of the PDP which blatantly jettisoned provisions of Section 7 (3) C of the party’s constitution that recommends rotation of elective and appointive offices, to accuse Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of not following its guidelines for the conduct of the 2023 general election.
He said, “You are blaming INEC chairman, he did not follow guideline. Did you follow our own constitution? He who seeks equity must come with clean hands. Whatever you sow you will reap.”
Wike reiterated that by breaching Section 7 (3) C of the PDP constitution, the national leadership of the PDP committed anti-party that is responsible for the humiliating loss in the presidential election.
The governor said: “I am an apostle of power shift. I fought for it. I have no apology to anybody. I said power must shift from the north to the south. I did not commit any anti-party. I fought for the unity of the country. Those of them at the national level in PDP committed anti-party.
“When people abandon the provisions of constitution of their party that talks about zoning of elective and appointive offices, what is more anti-party than that? You that refuse to obey the constitution of your party because of impunity; because you think you have the number, so you refuse to obey the provisions of the constitution of your party.”
He maintained that the loss suffered by the PDP in the presidential election was avoidable if not for the obstinacy of those who erroneously believed that certain cabal in Aso Rock Villa will install them in the presidency.
Wike said Rivers State has once again reaffirmed its commitment to the PDP by winning all the three senatorial and nine out of ten House of Representatives seats declared so far by INEC in the state.
The governor, also took a swipe at his predecessor and immediate past minister of transportation, Chibuike Amaechi, whom he accused of stroking flaming embers of conflict between the people of Rivers State and their Igbo neighbours.
He stated that Amaechi’s attempt to reintroduce the long-forgotten issue of abandoned property for his inordinate political agenda smacks of mischief.
He described as preposterous Amaechi’s promise to the Igbo that they will be compensated for abandoned property in the state if they support his crony, Tonye Cole, in the governorship election.
Wike said, “We are living in peace, harmony with our (Igbo) brothers and sister. Because he wants to install Tonye Cole, whom two of them we are prosecuting for taking $50million from our account, he is now talking about issue we have long forgotten. We are prosecuting them.
They stole our money.”
The governor said if he Amaechi truly loved the Igbos, he would have supported the Labour Party presidential candidate, Mr Peter Obi, but instead, he opted to mobilise support for the PDP presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, who is from the north.
He said: “Amaechi, you are half smart. You said you love the Igbos, but you supported Atiku for president. You refuse to support Obi. You didn’t know the Igbo then, that you were supposed to support them.
“When he (Amaechi) was running for president, he said power should come to the south. When he lost, he didn’t believe in that again, so power should go to the north so that when the north finish, he will beg them to give him power. No way.
“Within us in our integrity group we agreed that we must make sure power comes to the South and in any state where you have control, if Labour comes first, APC must come second. If APC comes first, Labour Party must come second, and we did it. I am proud to say it.”
Wike also castigated the governorship candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the state, Senator Magnus Abe, for lying to the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) that if they support his ambition he will sponsor Rivers people on pilgrimage to Israel.
The governor declared that currently in the country, no state government can claim it has supported Christendom more than his administration. To buttress this, the governor stated that the Rivers State government had singularly donated N800million and N500million respectively to the Anglican and Catholic churches university projects.
