2015: 14 Aspirants Gang-Up Against Wike

Fourteen governorship aspirants for the February 26, 2015, gubernatorial election in Rivers State, under the aegis of the Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP, have formed a coalition against the governorship aspiration of the immediate past Minister of State for Education,Chief Nyesom Wike.
The aspirants working in concert on the platform of the Rivers Mainstream Coalition, yesterday, staged a pro-rotation rally, at the Liberation Stadium, Elekahia, in Port Harcourt, the capital of Rivers State.
All the governorship aspirants who spoke at the rally insisted that the principle of zoning upland/riverine should be adhered to in choosing the governorship candidate of the PDP for the 2015 gubernatorial election.
An aspirant and former Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Power, Chief Bekinbo Dagogo-Jack, explained that the call for power rotation in Rivers State is popular because it is the appropriate thing to do. “An Ikwerre man cannot take over from another Ikwerre man. There are other ethnic stocks in the state and no amount of intimidation will forestall the on-going campaign to thwart Wike’s ambition to succeed Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi who like Wike is from the ethnic Ikwerre stock, he said.
Barrister Lulu-Briggs, who also addressed the rally, maintained that “our forebears have devised an ingenious bipolar method that allows all ethnic nationalities to have equal access to the governorship. The upland/riverine dichotomy has come to stay. We have no other choice but to abide by it since it conforms with the position of the PDP constitution”.
He said: “Anyone who has followed the political trend in Rivers State for the past 35 years will concur that there is indeed a political arrangement that is predicated on the existence of the upland/riverine dichotomy as it is commonly referred to. Ask yourself: does it make any sense to you that in a multi-ethnic state like Rivers State an ethnic stock would want to produce the governor of the state for four consecutive terms of four years each?
Samson Ngerebera said it was wrong for anyone to think that Wike was the only one who fought for President Jonathan when he came under a barrage of repeated verbal attacks from Governor Amaechi, essentially after his defection from the PDP to the All Progressives Congress, APC.
According to him, “We formed the Grassroots Development Initiatives, GDI, to sustain the PDP following the decampment of Governor Amaechi to the APC. We felt there was need to galvanise support for the party and assure members of the party in the state that the PDP was not dead because the governor who is the leader of the party had defected to the APC.”
“Wike simply hijacked the process that many of us in the PDP in Rivers State had thoughtfully put together. The three cardinal objectives of the GDI were to preserve the party; to sensitise our members and mobilise and rally support for President Jonathan’s second term. Beyond these, we did not know. And the evidence of our efforts could be seen from the large turnout at our rallies because PDP members where the ones mobilizing supporters for these rallies. So, it is wrong for anyone to say we stood by while Wike orgainsed the party. No. That is no true! “
Two other governorship aspirants, Gabriel Pidmosom and Abietedoghu Bob-Abbey Hart, the only female aspirant insisted that power must rotate. Pidomson pointed out that the state cannot be intimated by one man’s influence and ambition. He called on the people of Rivers State to stand by the aspirants to resist the domination of Government House by the Ikwerre ethnic stock.
Hart emphsised; “Power must rotate from the upland to the riverine and other areas that have not been opportune to produce a governor for Delta State. We cannot be intimidated by one man who feels he can hijack the party to attain his political ambition at the expense of other ethnic groups. “

Chairman, All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief John Odigie-Oyegun (left), Speaker, House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal and Femi Gbajabiamila during the party’s National Convention in Abuja onWednesday