The Rivers State Chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has predicted that immediate past Minister of State for Education, Chief Nyesom Wike, is unlikely to get up to 10 per cent of the votes to be cast during the 2015 governorship election despite the strong support for his candidature by Dame Patience, the wife of President Goodluck Jonathan.

Wike emerged in very controversial circumstances as the candidate of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) after 16 other aspirants were physically prevented from attending the primary election to select the party’s governorship candidate.

“Wike should have tried to be man enough and allow the G16 to contest and defeat him flatly instead of allowing himself to be imposed as Rivers PDP governorship candidate through what has been generally accepted to be the most fraudulent and kangaroo governorship congress ever in Nigeria’s history. This is a man who is perpetually afraid of competition and who never believes in a free and fair election, hence we are not surprised that he brazenly used his stooges and clowns in PDP to frustrate and rig out the 16 better qualified gubernatorial aspirants. To say the least, Wike’s governorship ambition is both ungodly and unholy while his emergence as PDP’s candidate is shabby, dubious, shameful and undemocratic,” Rivers APC said this morning.

The party in a statement in response to an earlier one by Wike accusing it of embarking on a propaganda war ahead of the 2015 elections, lambasted the controversial former junior minister “for having the temerity to levy a false accusation against the APC when all that we have been doing is to state the facts regarding Wike’s unreliable nature, his lack of preparation for the weighty responsibility of governorship and the wickedness of his party, the evil PDP, towards Rivers State and her people.”

Rivers APC in the statement issued in Port Harcourt by the State Chairman, Dr. Davies Ibiamu Ikanya, insisted that Wike’s governorship bid is at variance with natural law, equity, justice and fair play in the distribution of power in Rivers State. “We still maintain that his emergence is against the principle of zoning after the Upland section of the state has ruled for 16 years through Dr. Peter Odili and Rt. Hon. Chibuike Amaechi at the detriment of Riverine section of the State,” the party said.

It dismissed Wike’s governorship bid as a doomed venture, saying: “Wike is no match in any way to our credible candidate, Dr. Dakuku Adol Peterside, a man of unimpeachable character with a proven record of performance. His chances, which were slim from the very beginning, have been further dimmed by the plot of the G16 disenfranchised governorship aspirants to fight him to a standstill. Besides, the recent smashing of Wike’s rigging plot by the police, which nabbed his foot soldiers cloning INEC Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) in a hotel in Port Harcourt belonging to one of his key supporters, has further eroded the probability of his winning the 2015 governorship polls.”

Rivers APC, in conclusion, declared: “In view of the above irrefutable facts, coupled with the efforts of both INEC and the security agencies to eliminate rigging during the 2015 elections, we make bold to predict that Wike and President Jonathan would require a miracle to get up to 10% of the votes to be cast during the 2015 governorship polls in Rivers State.”

•Photo shows Wike.

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