By Chinwendu Obienyi
Spokesperson to the Presidential Campaign Council of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Daniel Bwala, has said the party will get at least 75 per cent of votes from Rivers State, saying Governor Nyesom Wike is just inconsequential.
Bwala said this during a programme monitored by Daily Sun, yesterday, and added that the antics of Governor Wike was the major reason Peter Obi was frustrated out of the party.
Daily Sun learnt that the simmering internal wrangling in the Rivers State chapter of PDP on February 5, blew open with the alleged arrest at the orders of Wike of, at least, 35 members of the party believed to belong to the party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar’s faction.
A group, the Atiku Support Organisation, has alleged that about 30 of its members were arrested by armed policemen during a meeting in GRA, Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital.
Responding to the development, Bwala said Wike has gone on a rant and forgotten that he is a respected individual because the PDP made him.
According to Bwala, Wike never funded the PDP but was funding his own interest.
“Amaechi participated in the primaries, he did not win and the walls did not fall as there was no Armageddon or war. Wike is the first one to believe if he does not win, the world will collapse forgetting that the entire party made him who he is today. What has he done or what was he worth before he entered politics? He was nobody and being a member of the party made him who he is today.
“Secondly, he was funding his interest and not the party. After he lost the primary, he saw he did not have a stake, and now stopped funding. He has collapsed structures, undermined states and because he was trying to take control of the structure and ensured Secondus was removed. Our presidential campaign in rivers was thwarted because even after the entire party was trying to please him, whom I believe is inconsequential to Atiku’s victory in the coming election,” Bwala said.
Bwala noted that while President Muhammadu Buhari did not win in Rivers State, he emerged as president and added that the PDP will get at least 75 per cent of votes from Rivers.
He said: “If you go down to the grassroots, they want this “pharaoh” removed. When as governor, you enter your second term, you have become less popular than your first term. He has money to bring media attention to what he does and I strongly believe members of his family will vote for Atiku on the day of election. How can Rivers State not vote for PDP?
This is a party they can claim ownership, a party that brought the good infrastructures, blessings from 1999 till date and I do not think there is any part of the geo-political zone that has benefitted more from PDP than the South South. Will the region leave PDP for a party that is unknown? For a party without a direction or a future?
Will they throw the party away for one man who is fizzling out of oblivion? Certainly not, because the people of Rivers State are intelligent and they know what they want.”
He further maintained that the G5 governors were not entirely at the whims of Wike and blamed Obi’s acrimonious departure on the Rivers State governor.
“He (Wike) cannot even pronounce integrity very well because his own version of integrity is interest-based, agenda-based. He has destroyed his political future because he will be seeking to run as president some time later in the future. He has cancelled his image in the entire image of the country and has cancelled in other parts of the continent. He is the reason we have Obi in Labour Party today because he frustrated him out of the party.
“Benue State governor has already promised to support us and even Bode George said Atiku is the better candidate among other presidential candidates. He even faulted the G5 and that is to tell you there is only one candidate, that is Atiku. The third term agenda of Obasanjo and the “Emi lokan” cannot stop Atiku from emerging winner from the elections,” Bwala said.