The Rivers State Chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) this morning launched a blistering attack on the State Governor, Chief Nyesom Wike, accusing him of being the unseen hand behind the campaign of calumny against General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd.) in the run-up to the March 28, 2015 presidential election.

Rivers APC said in a statement signed by the Chairman, Dr. Davies Ibiamu Ikanya, that it was not surprised to discover that Wike was behind the negative campaign against Buhari during the presidential campaign period “in view of Wike’s well-known treacherous character.”

“No one who knows Wike well enough would be surprised to learn that he, working in concert with a former Governor of Rivers State strongly connected to Daar Communications, operators of AIT and RayPower, was the brain behind the negative advertisements that almost derailed the victory of Buhari, the APC candidate, in the last presidential election. Wike is a devious and treacherous character who would stop at nothing to achieve his purpose. We thank Almighty God for frustrating his plans to foist his preferred candidate, then-president Goodluck Jonathan of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), on Nigerians for another four years, for that would have sounded the death knell for our dear country, Nigeria,” Rivers APC said in the statement issued in Port Harcourt.

The party recalled that “there was nothing, no matter how absurd, that was not deployed by Wike and his henchmen to assassinate the character of Buhari and portray him as unelectable in the negative advertisements that carried on radio, TV, newspapers and even international media outlets.”

“Wike was the person who also encouraged and supported his friend, Governor Ayo Fayose of Ekiti, to sponsor the death-wish adverts against Buhari. For Wike to have sunk more than five billion naira into that evil plot demonstrates his level of desperation to stop Buhari but God in His infinite love for Nigerians thwarted their conspiracy and installed Buhari as President,” Rivers APC said.

The party noted that “Wike and his co-conspirators have recently put together a huge war chest running into billions of naira – money that should have been used for the welfare of Rivers people – to similarly sponsor a smear campaign against former governor Chibuike Amaechi in the hope that it would make Buhari not to appoint Amaechi into his cabinet.”

It, however, said that “just as Wike and his group failed to achieve their evil plot against Buhari, so they shall also fail in their campaign of calumny against Amaechi, as President Buhari will not be bamboozled by their fairy tales.”

•Photo shows Governor Wike.