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Rivers guber: Aggrieved aspirants threaten protest votes against Jonathan
From GODWIN TSA, Abuja
The crisis trailing the Rivers State delegates’ elections of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) deepened yesterday with a warning by 19 governorship aspirants in the state that President Goodluck Jonathan stands the risk of losing 2 million votes in the state if their grievances are not addressed by the national leadership of the party.
The aggrieved politicians vowed to resist any attempt by the party to impose former Education Minister, Mr. Nyesom Wike as its governorship candidate in the state, demanded the dissolution of the State Executive Committee of the party as well as the cancellation of the November1 ward delegate election.
They equally called on President Goodluck Jonathan to prevail on the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party to abide by the policy of rotation and zoning of party and public elective offices.
In a statement yesterday in Abuja under the platform of Rivers Mainstream Coalition, the group warned the PDP to stop risking the 2 million votes from the state by doing the right thing.
Professor Israel Owate, who spoke on behalf of the concerned Rivers State PDP stakeholders noted that it was painful that while the national leadership of the PDP was ignoring the complaints from the state, promptly waded into and resolved crisis in other states of the federation which do not command same voting strength and had far less complicated matters compared to those of Rivers State.
Reeling out some of the alleged acts of impunity perpetrated by the state EXCO to favour the candidacy of Nwike, the group warned that if the issues are not resolved, then the party would risk the attainment of the usual two million votes in the presidential election because of the inordinate governorship ambition of Nwike.
The statement signed by Prof. Israel Owate reads in part;
“Whereas we are worried that our party, the PDP is about to sacrifice the interest of over five million Rivers people and put at grave risk the attainment of the usual two million votes in the Presidential election because of the inordinate governorship ambition of one man, we shall as patriotic Rivers people do what is right for our state and we urge the PDP to do same.
“Whereas it appears that those taking decisions on Rivers State PDP do not care about what happens to the state, we make bold to assert that the interests at play in Rivers State is beyond the PDP and has serious implication for both the president’s election and the continued economic stability of Nigeria.
“Whereas a couple of persons are bent on twisting and distorting our political tradition, we want to sound it loud and clear that Rivers people have very wide options and the nature and scope of their response cannot be determined by the Rivers Mainstream coalition or by the PDP.
Whereas a handful of selfish politicians are determined on driving Rivers State on the path of crisis, the Rivers mainstream Coalition as the vanguard of Rivers people has the higher sense of duty to God and humanity to alert Nigerians and the entire world to this looming disaster. A stitch in time saves nine.”
The group stated that although the PDP still has highly respected stakeholders across the state that can collectively defeat the APC in all elections, “most of these capable leaders have been excluded on grounds that they refused to endorse Wike’s ambition to succeed his kinsman as Governor. Accordingly, only much discredited, greedy and near rehabilitation politicians seeking revival can be found left following Barrister Wike and appropriating the party to themselves.”
Recalled that these aspirants had earlier boycotted the ward congress in the state alleging manipulations and breached of laid down procedures.
According to them, the state leadership of the party was accused of breach-ing the procedures lead-ing to the delegates’ wards congress. “The campaign organizations of the under-signed aspirants, having noted the processes leading to the ward delegates’ elec-tions scheduled for Satur-day, November 1, 2014, observed that our governor-ship aspirants have been deceived into believing that there would be a level play-ing field for all in the party. But, we note that the process leading up to the ward del-egate elections, which is the foundation of all subsequent primaries, is clearly convo-luted, flawed and cannot, therefore, produce an ac-ceptable outcome.
“Our party, the PDP, has breached the procedures that should lead to the ward congresses which include: open registration of mem-bers and authentication of the party registers at ward level, display of party regis-ter as stipulated in the party constitution”.
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