Wike Backtracks, Re-approves Stadium For Atiku’s Rally in Rivers

Rivers State governor, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, said the State government has re-issued the approval for the National Working Committee (NWC) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to use the Adokiye Amiesimaka Stadium in the State capital, for its presidential campaign rally.

The State government had on January 31, 2023 withdrawn the initial approval for the use of the facility granted on January 11 on the grounds that credible intelligence and certain development showed that the PDP Presidential Campaign Council was allegedly working in collaboration with the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State.

The State government had said that it understood that the PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation was intending to share the approved facility with the APC whose activities were allegedly characterised by violence and destruction.

However, the PDP Presidential Campaign Council in the State denied the allegations by the Rivers State.

Meanwhile, Governor Wike, who spoke at the State PDP campaign rally in the Ogu/Bolo local government area on Tuesday, said the State government has reapproved the use of the venue after pleas by many personalities.

The governor also spoke on the crisis in the PDP, even as he faulted the comment by the National Chairman of the party, Dr. Iyorchia Ayu, that a member of the G-5 visited him (Ayu).

He stated that the claim was false as no member of the group of five aggrieved PDP governors advocating for the southern chairmanship of the party will visit Ayu.

Wike, who said nobody can blackmail the G5 governors to drop the political advocacy because it is a fight they must surely win, insisted that no man can chase them away from the party they built.

The Rivers governor and four others namely Samuel Ortom, Seyi Makinde, Okezie Ikpeazu and Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Benue, Oyo, Abia and Enugu States respectively, have consistently demanded the resignation of Ayu as a pre-condition to support the PDP presidential standard bearer, Atiku Abubakar, in the forthcoming 2023 elections.