Rivers PDP Members Trade Words Over Abuja Fracas; Princewill Calls For Probe …APC Berates PDP For Action …Wike, Govs Can’t Compromise Us, PDP Panel Assures

Barely 72 hours after the fracas that took place in Abuja among stakeholders of the Rivers State Chapter of the Peoples’ Democratic Party, (PDP), two factions of the party are currently engaged in a war of words.
The brawl among members of the state PDP at the National Campaign Office of the party last Thursday had increased the palpable tension in the party, even as some members warned that they would pull the party down should it foist the Minister of State for Education, Nyesom Wike, on them as a governorship candidate.
It was reported that Wike’s loyalists had allegedly beaten up some elders of the party during the row in Abuja, a development that angered some of the stakeholders of the state PDP.
Cracks in the state PDP became obvious when the Chairman of the party, Mr. Felix Obuah, declared that the governorship position in Rivers State would not be zoned to any senatorial district, local government or ethnic nationality.
Some members of the opposition party, who believed that Obuah’s declaration was aimed at paving the way for the emergence of Wike, petitioned the national leadership of the PDP over the development.
Speaking on the free-for-all at the Legacy House in Abuja, a group of party supporters, under the aegis of Rivers PDP Third Force Movement, described as unacceptable a situation where the minister’s loyalists pushed elders of the party to the ground.
The Secretary-General of the group, Oprite Amachree, told our correspondent that his group would resist any attempt by the PDP to foist Wike on the people of the state.
Amachree, who spoke during a telephone interview, said the state PDP, in particular, would be brought down if Wike was presented as the flag bearer of the party for the 2015 election.
“Why would Wike’s thugs push elders to the ground at a meeting where a panel was to hear the grievances of members of the party? Why would they allow only Wike’s loyalists entrance into the Legacy House and block elders and those suspected not to be in support of Wike’s governorship ambition from entering,” Amachree queried.
He attributed the deepening crisis in the state PDP to President Goodluck Jonathan’s alleged lack of commitment to ensuring that peace reigned in the party at the state level.
Claiming that President Jonathan was always looking the other way whenever the minister allegedly overstepped his bounds, Amachree warned that there was no alternative to the rotation of the governorship position in Rivers State.
But the state Chairman of the PDP, Mr. Felix Obuah, dismissed Amachree’s claim, saying the Integration Committee sitting in Abuja was not marred by fracas.
Obuah, who spoke through his Special Adviser on Media, Mr. Jerry Needam, described the allegation of attacks at the meeting in Abuja as false, baseless and malicious.
Explaining that that some of the reports were targeted at smearing Wike’s image, Obuah said the allegation was the handiwork of agents of Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, whose aim, he said, was to cause disaffection among members of the PDP.
“The truth is that the expelled and non-members, seeing that their claims before the Prof. Iya Abubakar-led PDP integration panel were hollow, resorted to cheap blackmail against their target, Wike, which was not necessary,” he added.
Obuah, noted that Wike would not “descend so low” as to engage anybody in a physical combat, whether privately or publicly.
Simlarly, a governorship aspirant of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), Prince Tonye Princewill has condemned the incident that happened at the Legacy House, Abuja where some stakeholders of the PDP and members of the party in the state were beaten, just as he called for a full and detailed investigation into the incident to prevent a similar occurrence from happening.
Princewill, a former governorship candidate of the defunct Action Congress (AC) also noted that last Thursday’s incident was an embarrassment to Nigeria’s democracy, the PDP and the good people of Rivers State.
Princewill warned that as the 2015 elections draw closer, statements, actions and decisions political leaders become more influential in moulding the future of the state, stressing that the incident at the Legacy House was not just condemnable but an embarrassment to Nigeria’s democracy.
The governorship aspirant, in a statement signed by his Personal Assistant on Media, Wabiye Idoniboye-Obu, reminded all parties involved in the fracas that the peace we enjoyed in Rivers State today was not easy to come by.
“Portraying the party in a bad light will not help its growth and existence, and will do those of us who wish the President well, no good whatsoever”, he said.
He warned that no individual’s ambition is more important than the peace and development of Rivers State.
The statement further clarified that the aspirant was not present at the integration committee sitting, but had earlier submitted his memorandum.
According to him, ’’We believe that the award of the Nobel Pace Prize to Malala Yousafzai can inspire all of us to work together for peace. Your state will surely recognize your efforts.
‘’A Rivers State in crisis is a region in crisis. And our region in crisis will not bode well for our beloved nation’’, he noted.
He, however, apologized  on behalf of the good people of Rivers State to President Goodluck Jonathan, the PDP national chairman, the PDP national leadership and well-meaning Nigerians for the incident, stating that Rivers State is in dire need of attention.
Meanwhile, the Rivers State Chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has come down hard on the State Chapter of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) for disgracing the state in Abuja.
Rivers APC made the condemnation while reacting to the unruly behaviour of Rivers State PDP leaders who last Thursday engaged in a show of shame at the PDP National Headquarters by brazenly exchanging blows during a reconciliation committee sitting for the party’s chapters in the South South zone.
“Nigerians can now see what we have been experiencing in Rivers State and those who thought that we were wrongly accusing Rivers PDP and its leader, Minister of State for Education Nyesom Wike, of being agents of violence, can now see that we have been vindicated,” Rivers APC said in a statement issued in Port Harcourt and signed by the state Chairman, Dr. Davies Ibiamu Ikanya.
“Other Nigerians may have been shocked by the disgraceful behaviour of the characters that call themselves PDP leaders but to us in Rivers State, we are not by any means surprised because we are used to their violent ways.
“In fact, the second name of the Rivers PDP is trouble and they have exhibited this severally in Rivers State. Their stock-in-trade of causing mayhem and unprovoked attacks against anybody who is not a member of the drowning party is not strange to us at all,” Ibiamu said in the statement.
However, the National Integration Committee, South-South zone, set up by the national leadership of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) to reconcile aggrieved members of the party has said it would not allow any minister or governor from the zone to compromise it.
The committee was reacting to allegations levelled against it by some aggrieved members of the party from Rivers State that the Minister of State for Education, Nyesom Wike, had compromised its members.
The aggrieved members were allegedly beaten and refused entrance to the venue of the meeting of the committee in Abuja last Thursday.
Some of them were also allegedly locked up in a room inside the Legacy House where members of the committee met, and prevented from presenting their petitions.
But the committee, which ended its sitting in Abuja on Friday after listening to petitions from Cross River State, gave an assurance that its recommendations would promote internal democracy in the party.
The committee, which began sitting on Wednesday, received party delegates from Akwa Ibom, Delta, Edo, Rivers and Cross River states who filed petitions before it.
There was no petition or representative from Bayelsa State, the home-state of President Goodluck Jonathan.
Chairman of the committee, Senator Iya Abubakar, who briefed journalists at the end of the three-day session, said the committee had “very useful, peaceful and productive interactions” with the persons and groups who appeared before it.
He said, “There is no way we can be compromised by the governors or any minister. Nobody can compromise me and my committee members.
“Those who accused us of being compromised should provide evidence. The politics of soiled names and integrity is on. Those who were not able to enter this place are the ones making the allegations.

L-R., Rector, Rivers State Polytechnic, Sir, Obianko Elechi, Senator Magnus Abe, Dean, Students’ Affairs, RSUST, Professor Friday Segalo, member, NCC, Dominic Nwator on arrival for the presentation of Sen. Abe’s School Fee Support for students of Rivers South-East in Bori, Khana LGA, recently.