Group Denies Endorsing Wike For Governor

A socio-cultural group,
Opobo Patriots has dismissed reports that the organisation has endorsed the Minister of State for Education, Chief Nyesom Ezebunwo Wike to succeed Rt. Hon Chibuike Amaechi as Governor of Rivers State in 2015.
The organisation in a statement signed by Charles Jaja Ogolo and Mietamuno Ibim Joseph, said the Opobo Patriots was a fully registered  non-political  organisation  and should not be dragged into partisan  politics.
The statement noted that the said purported endorsement was a calcualted attempt by some persons  to  dent the image of the organisation, cause confusion and enlist the unmerited support of the  club members and as well deceive members of the general public who have  identified with the organisation.
“We would like to clearly state that, as a deliberate  club policy,  the Opobo  Patriots   had never, in its many years of existence, forayed into the uncertain arena of politics. That remains the position of the club till date.
“However, should the need  arise for the club to consider endorsing anyone for the 2015 governorship of Rivers State, such a decision will be guided by such hallowed principles as character, capacity, consistency, equity, justice, fairness, loyalty and patriotism.
Going by those lofty ideas, it is our strong opinion that Bar Nyesom Wike is manifestly unqualified, and indeed, will not be in a position to earn or merit such an endorsement  considering his antecedents”, the statement posited.
The group however, called on her members and the well meaning people of Rivers State, who hold the Opobo Patriots in high esteem, to disregard the purported endorsemet of the junior minister by the club, insisting that such endorsement is “only a figment in the evil and infantile imaginationof the junior minister and his misguided cohorts”