1K
… Declares them persona non-grata in Rivers
For attending a meeting with the former Vice President and the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, lives of some notable political figures in Rivers State have been threatened by the state governor, Nyesom Wike.
The political figures which include former deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, Austin Opara, former state governor Celestine Omehia and rormer Chairman of the Senate Committee on Petroleum Resources (Upstream), Sen. Lee Ledogo Maeba amongst others are now running for their lives as the governor has allegedly threatened to
“kill” them and also “kill” himself.
Sen. Lee Ledogo Maeba, who disclosed this in a call-in interview with symfoninews, an online television, during a ‘Road to 2023’ discussion on Monday said the Rivers State governor is standing between Atiku and the people of Rivers state even as he vowed that no power can stop the support of the people of the state for the PDP presidential candidate.
Sen. Maeba said that people outside the state do not quite understand how rabidly destructive the governor has become warning that River state may be turned into a war zone if the governor is not called to order.
He accused Wike of plotting to destroy PDP and go away.
Noting that the 2023 presidential election is a “low hanging fruit for the PDP” because “the APC government has collapsed” Sen. Maeba said: “Those who go to equity must go with clean hands because if you go with dirty hands, you may end up staining yourself. That is the situation I find in Rivers state now.”
Hear him: “After the primaries, a lot of issues have risen in Rivers. First, last Thursday, Gov. Wike called Ikwerre leaders including (Celestine) Omehia, who was part of a solidarity visit of Rivers opinion leaders to the presidential candidate of the PDP, Atiku Abubakar. In that meeting (meeting with Atiku), three things were discussed. We said that we heard the outburst of our governor on calling you names and we want to say that it is not in our character. It is not in our character for young people to insult older people.
“Number two, Rivers state has more than two million voters and nobody controls all of the voters. By the new electoral act, voters are free to vote for whoever they like. But, since we (PDP) are in the governance of Rivers state and are in the majority, we believe Rivers people will vote for our candidate without negotiation. So, Atiku will win Rivers State without negotiation. Nobody should threaten him that he will not get votes in Rivers state.
“That meeting was on Monday. By Thursday, Wike has called the leaders of Ikwerre and summoned Omehia and others including Austin Opara and told them that they have no right to have gone to meet Atiku for a meeting of that nature without clearing from him. He told them to be ready that he will kill them and kill himself. He gave that threat and said that if they did not have guns, they should go and buy guns.
“Austin Opara was deputy speaker, the number six man in the county when Atiku was number two. They are allies and attended caucus meetings together. They attend National Economic Council meetings together. Austin Opara and Atiku have been friends since 1999 and I believe that as a former number six man in the country, he has a friendship with Atiku which he can protect at any time.
“(Also), the primaries are over. I followed Wike to campaign in about 22 states of the federation because I was supporting a Rivers man who wanted to be president. But at the end of the convention, Atiku won the election and became the candidate of the party. We do not need another negotiation to support the candidate of the party. As a party man, there are about 50 candidates for several positions in Rivers state (from the House of Assembly to the Senate). Our duty, therefore, is to support the candidates of the party without negotiating with anybody.
“But, Wike clearly told them ‘let me see how you can campaign for Atiku in this state; no one can campaign for Atiku in this state without my permission.’ On Friday night, he invited the Ogoni and asked the member representing my constituency to tell me ‘let him see how I will campaign for Atiku in this state; that he is waiting for me and he will finish me and that I should be ready because he is ready for me if I come to campaign for Atiku. These are all surprise moments. You have 50 candidates plus Atiku to campaign for, why excise Atiku? What I am telling you are clear facts with evidence. If you call Austin Opara and Omehia, they will tell you these.
“Let me take you back a little. Wike refused any of us to buy forms to contest for governorship. He bought 14 of us forms and warned us never to campaign. Wike was ready to take on anyone who wanted to campaign. But I followed him to 22 states campaigning for delegates. We did not know who the delegates from Rivers are. The list was not published. At the end of the day, he called me on the 24th and told me that I cannot be governor because I campaigned for Atiku in 2019 without his permission and that I even formed ‘Friends of Atiku’ and even opened an Atiku office and because of that he cannot hand over the state to his enemy. These were his precise words and stated in the presence of his staff.
“I have never seen that humiliation in my life. He said the accountant general is a very good accountant general and will still be accountable to him in the next one year. He said I should not proceed to the primaries because if I do that I will get zero votes because the accountant general will take the first position, the commissioner for finance will take second position and the commissioner for works will take the third position and I will get zero votes because that is what he wanted to do.
“He already shared the votes. But this is a man who came to Abuja and participated freely. He addressed delegates and came second. But he did not allow us to do the same in Rivers.
He has never called us on any day to reconcile everyone since after the primaries. He has never called to apologize for what he did. He did not discuss with us about the candidate he wanted to use. He fooled us to the end. All of us have capacity to cause trouble and leave the party, but we kept quiet thinking that since we have Atiku, we have a candidate who will win the election and all of us will have something to look up for. But he has finished with us in the state. He called his team and told them that he has retired all of us. These are very provocative. These are not chocolates. He told me during one of our campaigns that if they do to him what they did to Dr Peter Odili, that he will collapse the system and everybody will go home. That is the fear here”, he said.
Sen. Maeba recalled that “in 2007, Peter Odili was more qualified to be president; he did not get it. He was more qualified to be vice president but (Goodluck) Jonathan got it. Odili felt bad but about three days after, he congratulated Jonathan. A few days later Jonathan flew into Port Harcourt and Odili rolled out the drums for him and thanked President Olusegun Obasanjo, who betrayed him, for giving it to south-south. That is statesmanship. That is patriotism. From what I have told you, what moral does Wike have to go and protest injustice? What is more unjust than what he did to me?”