Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State has said anybody jostling to be president of Nigeria would need to secure voted in the state to combine with Kano or Lagos to emerge victorious.
Such pivotal position, he said, established the importance of Rivers State in the political scheme of the country.
Wike spoke at the grand finale of the Peoples Democratic Party Local Government Election Campaign at Ulakwo in the Etche Local Government Area.
“I keep telling the Peoples Democratic Party that no state has given more votes to the party than Rivers; and it is only in Rivers, in the whole of South-South, that the All Progressives Congress didn’t get 25 per cent votes in 2019 general elections.
“In Nigeria, nobody wins presidency if you didn’t win either Rivers and Lagos or Kano and Lagos together. Rivers is not a state anybody can joke with. Some states went to negotiate with them. Rivers didn’t do it,” the governor said.
The governor made this known in a statement issued, yesterday, by his Special Adviseron Media, Kelvin Ebiri, titled, ‘Nobody can undermine Rivers in the quest for Nigeria’s Presidency- Wike’.
Wike, through the statement, took a swipe at Senator Andrew Uchendu for his uncanny comments in the media, and wondered what courage he spoke against PDP administration that is ending the suffering he inflicted on his people.
Uchendu had accused Governor Wike, a couple of days back, of asking a panel he once belonged to indictment his predecessor in office, Rotimi Amaechi.
Before reacting to the allegation Wike said, “I was watching Arise Television the other day, and I heard Senator Andrew Uchendu and the Chief Medical Director of University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital. The CMD said I asked him to indict the former governor. I don’t know that he has such judicial power.
“He (CMD) set up a target. The man was lobbying to be a commissioner where our former party chairman comes from without even doing due consultation. Because I didn’t give him Commissioner, he ran and started to abuse me,”
The governor said it was regrettable that Senator Andrew Uchendu spent several years in the National Assembly and close to the former administration in the State but couldn’t fix the road leading to his village.
“I am going there to flag off the road and to tell his (Uchendu) community, see what your son couldn’t give you. He (Uchendu) has collected the contract from NDDC every year, he abandoned it. I am going to shame him by doing that road.”
Speaking further, Governor Wike said the fortunes of Etche people have improved under the PDP led administration
He stressed that Etche sons have been appointed as Vice Chancellor of the Ignatius Ajuru University of Education and also as a judge.
He said his administration has established a campus of the River State University in Etche and awarded contracts for the Igbo-Etche -Rumuokwurushi Road, Olakwor-Nihi Road, and the Chokocho-Ozuzu Road that was abandoned by Ogbonna Nwuke, despite being paid for the project.
The governor said Etche will continue to be relevant in the political scheme of the state and be part of the process of discussion among stakeholders in deciding the next governor of the state.
“If I say I will do something, I will do it. Ordinarily, if Nigeria is a place of true democracy where votes count, no party can campaign in this state. Their hope is to use security?
“Have you seen second tenure governor working as we are doing? It is because of the love we have for this state. We all own this state together. All those threats of what they’ll do in 2023 are all foul talks.”
