The group, which is the umbrella body of 19 governorship aspirants said there was sufficient basis to believe that the national leadership of the party may have been "ambushed by powerful and stinkingly rich cartel of desperate political collaborators hell-bent on installing an Ikwere man to succeed Gov. Rotimi Amaechi. "
Speaking at a press conference in Abuja, the coordinator of the group, Prof. Israel Owate said; “Things are close to time when their expectations would come to pass; and violating this order with impunity to exclude other major ethnic groups of Ijaws and Ogonis is a grave risk the PDP can ill afford heading into 2015.”
He said, “It is on record that the gubernatorial screening panel for Rivers State disqualified 12 governorship aspirants including topmost contenders on "the spurious, trumped up frivolous allegations that these aspirants were not members of the PDP in Rivers State. Yet these are well known party stalwarts who had been issued the intent and nomination forms by the national organ of the party."
They said, “There is ample evidence that the imposition of Wike to succeed Gov. Amaechi shall cause deep geo-political imbalance, trigger negative reactions from other ethnic groups and threaten the peace, stability and unity of Rivers State, including the electoral fortunes of the PDP.”
He stressed that though the PDP still had highly respected stakeholders across the state, who could collectively defeat the APC in all elections, most of the capable leaders had been excluded on grounds that they refused to endorse Wike’s ambition.
The coordinator said that the tragedy that would befall the party by imposing Wike could only be averted by ensuring that other ethnic groups in the state were not extremely incensed by the intolerable prospect of being subjugated to the slavery of having another Ikwere person to succeed Amaechi.
It stressed that a handful of politicians were determined to drive the state on the part of crisis, stating that the group as the vanguard of the people, had the higher sense of duty to God and humanity to alert Nigerians and the entire world of the looming disaster.
The group therefore called on President Goodluck Jonathan to among others, prevail on the party to adhere to the policy of rotation and zoning of party and elective offices, and to openly declare the zone that produced the incumbent governor of the state was done in Akwa Ibom, Ebonyi, Adamawa and Enugu states.
“We make bold to state that Rivers people are determined more than before to take their destiny in their own hands and are prepared to make the necessary sacrifices to stop the political desperados from bastardising and destroying our economy and harmony,” the group said.
Source: Thisday
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