Wike: We’re Campaigning for Guber, Not Presidential Election

Blessing Ibunge in Port Harcourt

Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, has said the ongoing campaigns for candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state, was for governorship and other candidates, excluding the party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar.

Wike explained that he could not be campaigning for a candidate, who was yet to recorgnise the significant role play by the state in the national politics, adding that there was yet no understanding brokered for such level of support to be given by the state.

The governor, who spoke yesterday, during a campaign rally, in Bonny town, said, “Go home and have it on your mind that the PDP in Rivers State, we have taken governorship, we have taken the senatorial, we have taken the House of Representatives and we have taken the House of Assembly.

“That is the election we are doing here. These are the ones (candidates) who told me to come and campaign for them. No other person told me to campaign for him.

“I can’t force myself to campaign for you, when you have not asked for it. These ones (candidates) have told me, so, I’ve come here to campaign. If somebody asks you to work for him, you’ll work for him. But if they don’t want you to work for them, will you force them?”

While insisting that anybody who said Rivers was inconsequential would suffer the repercussion, Wike assured people of the state that no intimidation and propaganda could cause a distraction from the political path that has been so chosen.

“Any person, who says Rivers State is not important, we will pepper him. Anybody who says he doesn’t regard Rivers State, we would not regard such person. There’s nothing like propaganda, nothing like intimidation, because nobody can intimidate us. We are very, very solid. We are very strong.

“No state can point at us to determine what will happen here. Nobody can do such. So, be bold to say, I’m from Rivers State, I live in Rivers and I am happy with Rivers. What is important is our state, which  we have collected,” he said.

He said it was ludicrous for the All Progressives Congress (APC) to  campaign in the state based on the fact that President Muhammadu Buhari, their leader, had already adjudged PDP in Rivers as the best in infrastructure delivery in the country.