The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State has blasted the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) for using its wing known as the Grassroots Democratic Initiative (GDI) to persuade Rivers in the Diaspora to return Governor Nyesom Wike. The party said it received with rude shock the latest plot by GDI to waste and plunder the hard scarce public funds of Rivers State by embarking on a project of mobilising the indigenes of Rivers State abroad to re-elect Wike.
The party stated that for GDI to embark on this act of the re-election of Wike only confirmed the group’s legendary acts recalling that it was the same group that was used in 2014 to perpetuate insecurity in Rivers State; used to molest some northern governors that came to Rivers State in 2014 to sympathise with the then Governor of Rivers State, Amaechi over his ordeals in the hands of Wike and also used to harass, beat up, molest and dislodge over 11 key PDP members that wanted to contest the 2015 governorship election under the PDP platform at the party’s national secretariat at Abuja in 2014.
The APC was sad that a pastor and the convenor named Egba B. H. Egba, could say this: “Governor Wike has brought relief to Rivers State students who are on scholarship studying various courses abroad”. The party asked, “How could Wike have brought relief to Rivers State students that were stranded after unilaterally stopping the scholarship scheme meant for their studies abroad? It is unfortunate that Pastor Egba who is behind this latest plot has succeeded in exposing himself concerned about his stomach and ready to do anything to justify his source of income”.
The party in a statement circulated on Friday in Port Harcourt by Eze Chukwuemeka Eze, the Media Consultant to Davies Ibiamu Ikanya, the state chairman of Rivers APC further stated that nobody who loves Rivers State and her future will take this group serious in its wild goose chase of re-electing Wike come 2019.
The party asks, “How on earth could Governor Wike who ensured that our civil servants and pensioners are not paid their entitlements when due but prefers to give them loans, could not provide any employment to any Rivers State son or daughter throughout his three years of misguided governance; turned Rivers State into Rivers of blood and Port Harcourt from the garden city status to Port Harcourt city of garbage and dustbin; ensured that all the industries and facilities put up by the administration of Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi to reposition the State as an emerging great economic power in Africa are either vandalised or rendered redundant will be re-elected if not to invite disaster to the State.”
The party further stated that under the administration of Governor Wike, Rivers state stands out as the worst in areas of unemployment with highest unemployment rate of 41.82 percent in the country in the third quarter of 2017 according to the latest data released in Abuja by the National Bureau of Statistics. This implies that for every 10 persons in Rivers four are without anything doing. Affirming the position of the National Bureau of Statistics the party notes that under Wike’s evil administration no Rivers State Indigene has been employed into the Civil Service instead those employed like the 13,200 Teachers employed by Amaechi were sacked. This is the character that Pastor Egbe and his group are campaigning for.
The party reiterated that any group that embarked upon the re-election of Wike whose administration in Rivers State has brought more harm, hardship and shame to the state than any other administration since the creation of the State in 1967 should be considered as a great enemy of Rivers State.
“Based on these facts, the party urged the entire Rivers State indigenes to unite and team up with APC to salvage the State from the hands of misguided elements currently destroying and ruining the State come 2019.”
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The APC has however said it considers itself as the beautiful bride and sole platform through which Rivers State will be liberated from the shackles of the demonic, bloodletting, misrule and bad governance currently the lots of our people under the watch of Governor Nyesom Wike.
The party noted that with the cream of seasoned technocrats, political leaders, bureaucrats and some of the best brains of Rivers State considering the party as the only platform to use to actualise their dreams for better and greater Rivers State the liberation of the State is now more feasible than ever.
The party not minding the numerous high class candidates desiring to fly the flag of the party; she pledges a level playing ground to all her candidates during the primaries.
Revealing how Wike has allegedly ruined the economy of Rivers State, the party expressed sadness that the Songhai farm located at Bunu-Tai/Ban-Ogoi in Tai Local Council covering over 314 hectares of land that was introduced after studying the Songhai Centre in Porto Novo, Benin Republic, including the Songhai Rivers Initiative Farm (SRIF), which is 20 times the size of its prototype in Porto Novo and the biggest agricultural training project/programme in the country, has been vandalised and put out of use by Wike’s administration.
The party notes that the Fish Farms at Buguma Andoni, Ubima and Opobo with total production capacity of these farms at 5,000 tons per annum all commissioned and operational before Amaechi left office in 2015 have been rendered redundant by the Wike’s administration.
As if the above harms were not enough, the Banana Plantation Development Initiative aimed at the cultivation, production and export of banana for commercial purposes in partnership with San Carlos Nig. Ltd with about 6,000,000 boxes of banana produced annually and marketed locally and internationally with 2,000 hectares of land acquired for the project at Khana and Tai LGAs were all destroyed by the Wike’s administration.
With all these diabolical acts, Wike has destabilised the goals of most of these industries that include creating employment opportunities for the people of Rivers State, promoting enterprise development especially amongst the younger generation, promoting research in new agricultural techniques and varieties, encouraging skills transfer and adopting appropriate technology by local farmers, enhancing agricultural production and value addition, building interest in commercial farming, and facilitating agro-tourism in the state.
Wike did not stop at some of the above crimes against Rivers State, he ensured that all the modern and model schools constructed, completed, and operational by the administration of Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi are kept under lock and key; and to complete his destructive act against the educational future of our youths, he ordered the sacking of all the 13,200 Teachers employed by the administration of Amaechi and stopped all the scholarship schemes both foreign and local.
Ignatius Chukwu
