The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Rivers State under the leadership of Chief Godspower Umejuru Ake loyal to Abubakar Kawu Baraje has laughed-off the parade of spent political forces which Mr. Ezebunwo Nyesom Wike, the Supervising Minister for Education, embarked on last weekend at Okehi, the headquarters of Etche local government. The PDP said it was a pity that Wike, whom it accused of already launching his 2015 gubernatorial campaign under the guise of campaigning for President Goodluck Jonathan’s re-election, could name men like Emma Anyanwu, Ephraim Nwizu, Fred Kpakol, Abiye Sekibo, Sergeant Awuse, Uche Secondus and Olaka Nwogu as election winners. “We sincerely sympathise with Wike and make bold to say that that Etche declaration that he had shared the 23 councils in Rivers State for those men he named to win for him in 2015 shows truly that even before the cast of the first ballot, he had lost the election. If any of those men ever had any electoral value, it was in decades gone. Today, their names in Etche, Gokana, Okrika, Emohua, Andoni and Eleme, languages, respectively, mean failure, selfishness, rejection and anti-progress.”
In a statement Monday in Port Harcourt by George Ukwuoma-Nwogba, the State Publicity Secretary, the PDP declared those named by Wike to be political heavyweights as “spent forces who have lost touch with their constituencies. This also indicates that the Supervising Minister for Education has started campaigning ahead of 2015 but too unfortunate for him, the likes of Emma Anyanwu and Ephraim Nwuzi, cannot deliver Etche for him just as Fred Kpakol, Sergeant Awuse, Olaka Nwogu and Secondus cannot win Gokana, Emohua, Okrika, Eleme and Andoni, respectively, for Wike, come 2015. Those men long abandoned their grassroots and have therefore long been rejected by their own people.”
The Ake-PDP led declared that in the case of Etche, Wike must have been deceived by the two characters to believe they could win election in the area. Confirming that the whole Etche stands solidly behind Governor Chibuike Amaechi, the statement noted that “Etche is better today under the able leadership of the award-wining governor, our son and Chairman Nigeria Governors Forum, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi.”
The PDP continued, “Come 2015 Etche people will say YES! to model secondary school, Okehi, good road network at Ozuzu Clan, Afra-Mba road, Umuaturu-Obite world-class bridges and roads, Okehi-Ndashi road, health centres across the LGA, new modern town at Akwa, model primary schools, the reason the cream of Etche politicians are behind Rt. Hon. Chibuike Amaechi.”
While demanding that immediate sanctions be taken by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, against Wike for flouting the provisions of the electoral law that stipulates 90-day campaign period for political parties, the PDP said Wike and his campaigners are “living in the imagination of their past. They are out of touch with the people who have for long rejected them. What those men only hang on is the seeming difference between the G7 Governors and the President. As soon as this is resolved, that will be the end of the road for those group of men that failed Rivers people over the years. Our suggestion to Wike is that rather than depend on the men he named to win the governorship for him come 2015, it was better he went to our model primary schools and picked classroom prefects.”
