Governor of Rivers State,\u00a0 Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, says anybody jostling to
\nbe president of Nigeria will also need to secure votes in Rivers to
\ncombine with either Kano or Lagos to emerge victorious.<\/p>\n
Such pivotal position, he said, establishes the importance of Rivers
\nState in the political scheme of the country, and nobody will be allowed
\nto undermine it.<\/p>\n
Governor Wike made the assertion at the grand finale of the Peoples
\nDemocratic Party (PDP) Local Government Election Campaign that held at
\nUlakwo in Etche Local Government area on Thursday.<\/p>\n
“I keep telling the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP),\u00a0 that no state has
\ngiven more votes to the party than Rivers.<\/p>\n
“And it is only in Rivers, in the whole of South-South, that the All
\nProgressives Congress (APC) didn’t get 25 per cent votes in 2019 General
\nelection. We thought them a lesson.<\/p>\n
“In Nigeria,\u00a0 nobody wins presidency if you didn’t win either Rivers and
\nLagos or Kano and Lagos together. Rivers is not a state anybody can joke
\nwith. Some states went to negotiate with them. Rivers didn’t do it.”<\/p>\n
Governor Wike took a swipe at Senator Andrew Uchendu for his uncanny
\ncomments in the media, and wondered what courage he has to talk against
\nPDP administration that is ending the suffering he inflicted on his
\npeople.<\/p>\n
“I was watching Arise Television the other day, and I heard Senator
\nAndrew Uchendu and the Chief Medical Director of University of Port
\nHarcourt Teaching Hospital. The CMD said I asked him to indict the
\nformer governor.\u00a0 I don’t know that he has such judicial power.\u00a0 I don’t
\nalso know his basis.<\/p>\n
“He (CMD) set up a target. The man was lobbying to be a Commissioner
\nwhere our former party chairman comes from without even doing due
\nconsultation. Because I didn’t give him Commissioner, he ran and started
\nto abuse me.”<\/p>\n
The governor said it was regrettable that Senator Andrew Uchendu spent
\nseveral years in the National Assembly and close to the former
\nadministration in the State but couldn’t fix the road leading to his
\nvillage.<\/p>\n
“I am going there to flag off the road and\u00a0 to tell his (Uchendu)
\ncommunity, see what your son couldn’t give you. He (Uchendu) has
\ncollected the contract from NDDC every year, he abandoned it. I am going
\nto shame him by doing that road.”<\/p>\n
Speaking further, Governor Wike said the fortunes of Etche people have
\nimproved under the PDP led administration in the state.<\/p>\n
According to him, under his administration, Etche\u00a0 sons have been
\nappointed as Vice Chancellor of the Ignatius Ajuru University of
\nEducation and also as a judge.<\/p>\n
He said his administration has established a campus of the River State
\nUniversity in Etche and awarded contracts for the Igbo-Etche
\n-Rumuokwurushi Road, Olakwor-Nihi Road, and the Chokocho-Ozuzu Road that
\nwas abandoned by Ogbonna Nwuke, despite being paid for the project.<\/p>\n
Governor Wike said Etche will continue to be relevant in the political
\nscheme of the State and be part of the process of discussion among
\nstakeholders in deciding the next governor of the state.<\/p>\n
“If I say I will do something,\u00a0 I will do it. Ordinarily,\u00a0 if Nigeria is
\na place of true democracy where votes counts,\u00a0 no party can campaign in
\nthis state. Their hope is to use security?<\/p>\n
“Have you seen second tenure governor working as we are doing? It is
\nbecause of the love we have for this state. We all own this state
\ntogether. All those threats of what they’ll do in 2023 are all foul
\ntalks.”<\/p>\n
The governor urged the people of Etche to continue to work in unison
\nahead of 2023.<\/p>\n
Leader of PDP in Etche, Prince Emma Anyanwu said the people of the
\ncouncil have no regret associating with Governor Wike.<\/p>\n
Another chieftain of the PDP, Mr. Allwell Onyesoh, lauded the governor
\nfor the numerous developmental projects his administration has done in
\nEtche<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Governor of Rivers State,\u00a0 Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, says anybody jostling to be president of Nigeria will also need to secure votes in Rivers to combine with either Kano or Lagos…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":77899,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-79758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n