A Prominent Niger Delta
activist, Ms. Ann Kio-Briggs has warned that the People’s Democratic Party (PDP),  may lose the 2015 governorship election in Rivers State to another political party if the former  Minister of State for Education, Chief Nyesom Ezebunwo Wike was imposed as the party’s flag bearer for next year’s election.
Kio-Briggs who is the spokeperson of the Ijaw Republican Assembly, (IRA) told newsmen in Port Harcourt, Wednesday, explained that plans by Barrister Wike to succeed his kinsman and incumbent Governor, Rt.Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi in 2015 is unacceptable to other ethnic nationalities.
The activist warned that no amount of rigging, would guarantee the PDP victory in the governorship election in the state if the party chooses Wike as its flag bearer in the forthcoming elections.
The activist reiterated that the only two qualified ethnic groups to succeed Amaechi were the Ogoni and Ijaws, adding that Kalabari alone can boast of huge voting strength giving the fact that it controls nine out of the twenty three local government areas that makes up the state.
She faulted Wike’s consistent utterances that Obio/Akpor Local Government area where he comes from has the highest voting strength in the state.
According to her, “this is false. Obio/Akpor local government area is cosmopolitan in nature where you have Igbos, Yorubas and Hausas doing businesses. On the day of election, these people will travel home to vote in their various local government areas and states”.
“The situation in Rivers State is going to be bloody because it seems as if PDP national leadership appears to be listening to one person alone in a state of multi-ethnic nationalities. PDP must dialogue with all the stakeholders if they want to win the state. “If Rivers State boils in the course of the election, the economy of Nigeria will crumble and the world will come to its knees. This country as it is now does not need any political instability. For peace to reign therefore, the right thing must be done by the party”, she said.
The activist however said “Wike has not finished the fight against Amaechi, why does he want to share the spoils of the war? There are ministers in other states, I have never heard them said they are fighting for President Goodluck Jonathan to become governors in their states. But Wike has been deceiving Nigerians with such lies.
“Amaechi started fighting Jonathan when Wike was still working with him as the chief of staff, what did he do? He did not resign in protest. If he says he is fighting for Jonathan, has he won the war? Amaechi is still the governor of Rivers State”, she noted.
“Rivers State PDP has been deceiving the national that they will deliver the state for the party. This is not true. What we should do is for everybody to work in a way that Jonathan will have 25 per cent in all the states to win the election. But Wike is not helping matters in the state,” she added.
She disclosed that the purported report that Wike has been able to convince the former minister, Alabo Graham Douglas to support the Ikwerre quest for governor “was false, saying, “there is no truth in it. It is one of their mischievous designs to deceive the Rivers people”.

Candle light procession in honour of the Ogoni Martyrs, organised by the Movement for Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) last Sunday. Photo: Chris Monyanaga.