The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has canceled its presidential campaign rally in Rivers State slated for Tuesday, February 14, 2023.
Addressing journalists in Port Harcourt, the state capital, on Monday, the chairman of the PDP Presidential Campaign Council in the state, Senator Lee Maeba, said Governor Nyesom Wike had already declared members of the campaign council and Atiku’s supporters as enemies of the state.
Maeba stated that supporters of the PDP presidential candidate in the state have been suffering different forms of life-threatening attacks since May 2022, when Wike lost the party’s presidential ticket to Atiku.
He said: “It is therefore instructive to note that this directive has direction in the vituperation of an overt act of Governor Nyesom Ezenwo Wike. In this instance, he has openly branded members of the PDP Presidential Campaign Council and all supporters of the presidential candidate as enemies of the state and vowed to crush them. Video evidence abounds to support our assertion.
“He admitted carrying out that attack on Dr. Abiye Sekibo and Senator Lee Maeba in his earlier statement at Eleme during a gubernatorial campaign rally on Friday, February 10, 2023.
“He boasted that the two ‘armed robbers, Dr. Abiye Sekibo and Senator Lee Maeba’ were chased away when they came to take a land belonging to the Rivers State Government and they are lucky they ran away before he arrived at the scene. He tried to make an unimpressive denial which does not hold water the next day.
“In the light of the above submission, we the state campaign council, in total constructive engagement with the National Presidential Campaign Council, the candidate, and the party, haven’t seen and evaluated the bodily harm and potential death threats, believe that no loss of life can be tolerated, accepted before, during and after the presidential election and agree with our principals on the need to shelve and or cancel the rally to avoid any death because the victory of Atiku Abubakar does not deserve spilling of the blood of even one citizen of Rivers State.
“This may be painful, but it is the best decision to take as no human death can be excused on the insistence of hosting a rally due to the brigandage which the security agencies have not been able to break in and restore confidence, security-wise, on the populace and our members.
“Finally, we pray the President and Commander-in-Chief, President Muhammadu Buhari, act decisively as the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria by instructing and making sure that the security agencies do their job in an impartial manner that will restore confidence and buy into the free and fair election as he has variously mentioned that he will ensure that no thug, no government will stand in the way of a free and fair election. And to also ensure that nobody uses his resources to purchase Nigerians to get into the Presidency.”
Wike and Atiku have been at loggerheads since the Rivers State Governor lost the presidential ticket to the former vice president.
He and his allies, under the Integrity Group, had distanced themselves from the campaign, giving the resignation of Senator Iyioricha Ayu as the party’s national chairman as a condition for them to campaign for Atiku, but the party called their bluff.
Wike is the leader of the G5 group comprising Governors Seyi Makinde (Oyo), Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia), Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Enugu,u), and Samuel Ortom (Benue).
