The All Progressives Congress in Rivers State has said that despite the assumption of office of Governor Nyesom Wike, it was confident that he would be removed by the election petition tribunal.
Wike won on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party during the April 2015 elections.
The state chairman of the APC, Dr. Davies Ikanya, in a statement made available to SUNDAY PUNCH on Saturday, said Wike was unjustly declared the winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission.
He advised the governor not to embark on any long term project, adding that he (Wike) has a short time to stay in office.
The state APC chairman also advised the governor not to change the curtains and furniture in the Government House, because he has ‘a very short time’ to stay in power.
He pointed out that the blood of APC members spilled during the elections in the state would never be in vain.
“Mr. Wike was unjustly declared winner by the state INEC, which never hides its connivance with Rivers PDP.
“He does not have the legitimate mandate of the good people of Rivers State to act as their governor. We remain confident that the Election Petition Tribunal will do the needful and sack him accordingly in view of the materials submitted to them, in view of the immorality associated with his occupation of the Government House and in view of the outcry of the people of Rivers State that he does not have their mandate to serve as their governor.
“As we wait to reclaim the mandate of the Rivers State people, which was wickedly seized by INEC in their desperation to impose Wike as the governor of Rivers State, we wish to state that we will not allow the blood of our members spilled to be in vain.
“We owe them and their families the duty to ensure that a God-fearing governor in the person of Dr. Dakuku Peterside is duly installed in the Government House based on the mandate of the good Rivers State people,” Ikanya said in the statement.
He, however, appealed to the people of the state to endure whatever hardship that may come from Wike’s administration, pending the restoration of the mandate they gave to the party’s candidate.
In a reaction, the state chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Chief Felix Obuah, told Sunday PUNCH that Wike’s victory would stand, maintaining that the mandate was given to him by the people.
Obuah, who spoke through his Special Adviser on Media, Mr. Jerry Needam, pointed out that the earlier APC realised that Rivers is a PDP state, the better for it.
Describing Wike’s victory at the poll as sacrosanct, he urged the APC to stop weeping over the last election.
On the call that Wike should not try to change the furniture in the Government House, Obuah explained that there was no furniture to change adding that the Government House had already been vandalised by the former governor, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi and his cohorts.
“I want to ask; what furniture is the APC talking about? Former governors, Peter Odili and Celestine Omehia, left golden doors in the office of the governor but these are all gone. They have been taken away by Amaechi and his cohorts.
“They have used APC brooms to sweep away the property in Government House, which is now an eyesore,” Obuah added.
Similarly, Mr. Simeon Nwakaudu, who is the media aide to Wike, explained that the APC in the state should stop sounding as if the election petitions tribunal belonged to it.
Nwakaudu, who spoke in a telephone interview with Sunday PUNCH, insisted that Wike’s victory would stand because the mandate was given to him by the people.
“We are not surprised by the ranting of the APC in the state. Is the tribunal their personal property? They should stop sounding as if the tribunal is theirs.”
Source: Punch
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