You Can’t Disrespect Rivers, Yet Expect Our Votes, Wike Insists …Inaugurates Rivers PDP Campaign Council

Rivers State Governor, Chief Nyesom Wike, has said that those who disrespect the state and its electoral importance do not deserve Rivers electorate to vote for them or their candidates in the 2023 general election.
Wike made this assertion during the inauguration of the Rivers State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Campaign Council in Port Harcourt, last Monday.
He pointed to how the PDP presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, picked people from Rivers State as members of the presidential campaign council without any input from him, which means that they do not want the state to be part of what they were doing.
“The presidential candidate entered Rivers State and picked those he wants to pick without the contribution of the governor. So, they said they don’t need me to campaign for them; they don’t need Rivers people to campaign for them. Will you force yourself on them?”
The governor further added, “I have never seen how people will disrespect a state like Rivers State, and go and choose those who are enemies of the state, without any contribution from us. So, let’s campaign for those who have told us to campaign for them here in the state, the governorship candidate, the senatorial candidates and others.”
Wike decried how Rivers State had been treated in the past despite the bulk votes delivered to the PDP since 1999.
According to him, people cannot continue to demand for Rivers votes, and yet, be unwilling to accommodate its interest.
“Politics is a game of interest. If nobody accommodates the interest of Rivers State, then, we have nothing to do with such people. If you say that you have no interest in Rivers State, Rivers State will not have your own interest. It is only those who like us that we will like.
“I have told people who care; Rivers State has voted PDP since 1999. Of this supportwe have given since 1999 till now, can you mention one thing that we have gotten in this state? Can you mention one road that we have gotten? All they care is to ask for Rivers State votes, after the votes, you push us aside. That will not happen again.”
To the Rivers PDP Campaign Council, Wike told the members to have a different mind-set because the strategies to be adopted for the 2023 election would not be like what they had known.
He stated that PDP in Rivers State had done well for the people, with such feat attested to by President MuhammaduBuhari, which makes it more difficult for any party to have a chance of winning the election in the state.
Wike boasted that Rivers State was the envy of other states because of his remarkable achievements in office, which would be beneficial to all PDP candidates in the state during campaigns.
The governor, who said that he had directed the release of N60billion to contractors handling projects in the state to enable them speed up work.
He assured that more projects such as the Dr Peter Odili Cancer and Cardiovascular Diagnosis Treatment Centre, the 8th and 9th flyover bridges, phaseone of the Trans-KalabariRoad, Saakpenwa–Bori-KonoRoad, among others, would be inaugurated soon.
In his response, the Alternate Chairman of the Rivers PDP Campaign Council, Chief Ferdinand Alabraba, said they had accepted the assignment given to them, and were determined to do their best to deliver the Consolidation Team of the NEW Rivers Vision.
He noted that the transformation that Rivers State had experienced under Wike since 2015 had further endeared the PDP to the people.
This, he said, had given them a head start above other political parties.
And without resting on their oars, Alabraba said, the members of the council would work hard to deliver all 32 candidates of state House of Assembly, 13 members for House of Representatives, the three senatorial candidates and the gubernatorial candidate of the party in the state.
On his part, the state Chairman of the PDP, Amb Desmond Akawor, described the day as the start of the process of bringing on board a NEWTeam of leaders in the state.
Akawor said, he would confidently navigate the 23 local government areas of Rivers State, showing the people the completion certificates of projects that Wike had delivered in those areas as a proof of what the NEWTeam shall continue to do for the state.