Wike’s claim that his loss in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential primary contest was caused by his faith.

Ibekimi Oriamaja reports

Senator Aliyu Wamakko, an All Progressives Congress (APC) leader who represents Sokoto North in the National Assembly, has cast doubt on Rivers State Governor Mr. Nyesom Wike’s claim that his loss in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential primary contest was caused by his faith.

Wike invited Wamakko to speak at the opening of one of the Rivers State governor’s projects on Tuesday in Port Harcourt.

Wamakko’s stance came as it became clear yesterday that the PDP’s leadership crisis over the results of the party’s presidential primary was growing unresolvable and that some members of the National Working Committee (NWC) appeared to have abandoned Wike in favor of mingling with Dr. Iyorchia Ayu, the national chairman.

However, Senator Lee Maeba, a fellow Rivers guy, was chastised yesterday by Dr. Chidi Lloyd, the chairman of the Emohua Local Government Area in Rivers State, for his recent verbal assault on Wike.

In a similar incident, Senator Magnus Abe of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in Rivers State called to Wike and other political figures not to usher in a new era of ugly politics and animosity.

In response to Wike’s earlier comment about losing the PDP presidential nomination, Wamakko emphasized that religion did not play a significant role in Nigeria’s national elections.

The former governor of Sokoto State said, “My brother, I beg to differ that you lost the election during the last PDP convention because of religion.”

Wamakko explained, “This is because Muslims voted twice for Chief Olusegun Obasanjo to lead this nation as president.
“Muslims also twice voted for former President Goodluck Jonathan, who is from the South-South geopolitical zone,” the former governor continued. I am sorry, sir, I have to disagree with you on the topic of religion here. Take note, please.”

He, however, lauded Wike for his developmental accomplishments in Rivers, saying, “I have seen what you can do, what you have done and I feel that you have the potential to do more. Having said that, let me state again that Governor Wike, you are extremely active, very daring and talk and do governor of Rivers State.”

Earlier, in his remarks, Wike highlighted that the country’s development issues bordered on lack of experienced people who were passionate to serve and improve society.

The governor remarked, “Somebody contacted me last night and said people are discussing that the Nigerian economy was dying, things are hard in Nigeria, that am I in a foreign nation; that every day we are commissioning new projects. Your passion, love of your coworkers, and dedication to the job are more important than how much money you have.

“The issue we face in this nation today is the lack of individuals who are passionate about serving their people. The only thing I regret is that I didn’t get a chance to warn the bandits that enough is enough. Unfortunately, I don’t have the opportunity to enter the bandits’ zone, at which point their window of opportunity would have closed. But because I already have one, I’ll utilize it to make my people happy since they deserve nothing less.

“A good government ought to be accessible to its citizens. Being near to the populace is not a problem. But what matters is what you have accomplished by having a good relationship with individuals in positions of power. God forbid that if I am close to a president or vice president, nothing bad will happen to my neighborhood.

PDP Crisis: NWC Members Might Have Backed Ayu Instead of Wike

The National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting and the national caucus meeting, which were originally scheduled for yesterday and today, have been postponed due to the PDP leadership issue.
There were rumors that the governor of Rivers State had asked for Ayu to be fired because of his allegedly biased behavior toward him. Because of the heightened emotions, some NEC members also demanded that Ayu be fired. However, it was suggested that the NEC and the national caucus meetings be postponed to allow for additional reconciliations in order to ease the tension.

Wike’s demand that Ayu be fired was revealed to Tracknews by a member of the NWC as being counterproductive.

According to the source, if Ayu were to be fired as Wike requested and replaced by a person from the south, the national secretary from the south, Senator Samuel Anyanwu, would have to resign from his position.

Additionally, it would imply that Wike himself would have lost a high-ranking official that he had proposed. The aforementioned swap will have an impact on other NWC members from the south in addition to Senator Anyanwu. Given the situation, it will disrupt the party’s plans for the upcoming presidential and other elections.

Therefore, rather than split the party now and cause a serious crisis that will extend well into the campaigns, we have chosen to side with the known devil. We will back Ayu and wait and see what happens after the general election, it has been decided.

The NWC member, who begged to remain anonymous, stated that it was generally agreed that the suggestion for balancing made by Wike and others in his camp should be discussed after the election.

The source said, “Whatever happens to Ayu will happen to all of us.”

“We are with Ayu right now. The NWC member declared, “We’ll go down with him and swim with him.
Additionally, Track News learned that Wike had severed political ties with Anyanwu, the party’s national secretary. A source claims that Wike’s lone current collaborator is the
According to a PDP top source, the situation is the same for PDP governors in the South-east, including those in the states of Enugu and Abia.

“Survival and self-interest are the rules of the game,” he declared. They all have a vested stake in the success of the governorship candidates they have backed and the preservation of their state-level interests.

The source claims that, given that the EFCC has begun looking into the finances of Rivers State, it is in Wike’s best interests for his candidate to be elected as the state’s next governor.

The source added that it was well known that the Rivers State governorship candidate narrowly avoided being taken into custody in June at the PDP headquarters in Abuja.

Additionally, it was learned that Wike did not share the same political views as several of the state’s top PDP figures, including Senator Maeba, Austin Opara, Celestine Opara, Senator Sekibo, and the former Chief of Army Staff, General Kenneth Minimah.

Meeba is criticized by Rivers Council Chief for attacking Wike.

Dr. Chidi Lloyd, the chairman of Rivers State’s Emohua Local Government Area, chastised Meeba for his most recent verbal assault on Wike. Strong Atiku supporter Meeba recently called Wike a dictator in an interview.

He bemoaned that the governor thwarted his attempt to run in the party’s governorship primary and asserted that Wike had threatened to block them from supporting Atiku in the state without his express consent.

The governor of Rivers State disbanded the Elechi Amadi Polytechnic, where the former senator served as chairman of the governing council. Meeba bemoaned the fact that Wike forbade him from hiring anyone at the organization and that as a result, he stopped funding the polytechnic.
He asserted that the governor was also upset with them for telling Atiku in a recent meeting that Rivers State would back a PDP candidate in 2023 that they would support a PDP candidate.

However, Lloyd called Meeba a political outsider and a coward. Meeba, a two-term senator, was accused of acting cowardly by claiming that Wike had advised him not to run for governor, according to him.

By continuing to lead the Polytechnic’s council despite Wike allegedly refusing to pay it for more than seven years, Meeba, according to Lloyd, once again demonstrated his frailty.

Lloyd only described Lee Meeba as a coward. It is quite terrible that he has infected the nation with his cowardice. The fact that Lee publicly asserts that Wike told him not to run in an election is the reason he lost demonstrates how cowardly he is.

Lloyd claimed that the attempt by Atiku and others who supported him to sow discord inside the Rivers PDP was a fruitless endeavor due to the support of the party’s top officials for Wike.

Lloyd asserted that there was no crisis within the Rivers PDP and that Governor Wike was in command. Our satisfaction with Governor Wike is high. That was the reason several of us who went to APC returned to work with him. Why is it that Rivers has no other political party, don’t you see? We wholeheartedly support Wike.

Abe to Wike: We cannot make the rivers sour again

Senator Magnus Abe pleaded with Wike and other state political figures not to usher in a new round of nasty and antagonistic politics.

The governor shouldn’t, according to Abe, permit Rivers to live in terror again because that would damage the state’s reputation in the media.

When Abe hosted representatives of the Southern Kaduna Peoples yesterday, he said as much.
During a solidarity visit, Forum and the Middle Belt Forum endorsed his candidacy for the state’s gubernatorial elections in 2023.

The former senator responded to the state governor’s weekend broadcast in Port Harcourt by saying, “My attention has been drawn to the state broadcast by Governor Nyesom Wike, where he expressed fears and reservations about politicians getting together with cultists in hotels, bars, resorts, and other entertainment centers to plan evil against one another.

“When I saw the name of my party, the SDP, mentioned in that program, I was really disturbed. My own worry and prayer is that Rivers State won’t be brought back to the same level of anxiety, difficulties, and crisis that we had in prior elections.

“I want to appeal to our governor, regardless of whether we are members of the SDP, APC, PDP, or any other political parties we belong to; we are all Rivers men and women and our objective is to choose a leader for our people that will carry us forward, not to bring cultists and fight one another,” the speaker said.

The SDP candidate for governor proposed holding a security summit to which all political figures would be invited to provide their suggestions for ensuring peaceful voting before, during, and after the state’s elections in 2023.

“I will expect the governor, as a friend and the father of the State, to call all of us to sit down and share ideas on how to move forward into this election in a calm, convivial environment in which everyone will be free to participate,” he said.

“I will beg that we get together and talk to one another, whether the governor likes it or not. It is the governor’s obligation to promote a pleasant and conducive situation for all of us.”

“I’ll make a plea to my fellow politicians. The governor has raised security worries. Let’s not start attacking one another over that. Instead, let’s get down and seek for ways that will allow us to overcome these obstacles without difficulty.”

Prior to this, Samuel Adamu, the leader of the Southern Kaduna Peoples Union and the Middle Belt Forum, said they had come to express their support for Abe and to assure him that they would rally all of their members behind him because they thought he had what it took to make Rivers State a pride of place in Nigeria and beyond.