BusinessDay 15 April 2018

Sunday 15 April 2018
C002D5556
13
Politics
2019: APC blasts PDP’s GDI for mobilising
Rivers’ people abroad for Wike
IGNATIUS CHUKWU
The All Progressives
Congress
(APC) in Rivers
State has
blasted the ruling
People’s Democratic
Party (PDP) for using its
wing known as the Grassroots
Democratic Initiative
(GDI) to persuade
Rivers in the Diaspora to
return Governor Nyesom
Wike. The party said it received
with rude shock
the latest plot by GDI to
waste and plunder the hard
scarce public funds of Rivers
State by embarking on
a project of mobilising the
indigenes of Rivers State
abroad to re-elect Wike.
The party stated that
for GDI to embark on this
act of the re-election of
Wike only confirmed the
group’s legendary acts
recalling that it was the
same group that was used
in 2014 to perpetuate insecurity
in Rivers State; used
to molest some northern
governors that came to
Rivers State in 2014 to
sympathise with the then
Governor of Rivers State,
Amaechi over his ordeals
in the hands of Wike and
also used to harass, beat
up, molest and dislodge
over 11 key PDP members
that wanted to contest
the 2015 governorship
election under the PDP
platform at the party’s national
secretariat at Abuja
in 2014.
The APC was sad that
a pastor and the convenor
named Egba B. H. Egba,
could say this: “Governor
Wike has brought relief
to Rivers State students
who are on scholarship
studying various courses
abroad”. The party asked,
“How could Wike have
brought relief to Rivers
State students that were
stranded after unilaterally
stopping the scholarship
scheme meant for their
studies abroad? It is unfortunate
that Pastor Egba
who is behind this latest
plot has succeeded in exposing
himself concerned
about his stomach and
ready to do anything to justify
his source of income”.
The party in a statement
circulated on Friday in Port
Harcourt by Eze Chukwuemeka
Eze, the Media Con-
Governor Wike
try in the third quarter of
2017 according to the latest
data released in Abuja
by the National Bureau
of Statistics. This implies
that for every 10 persons
in Rivers four are without
anything doing. Affirming
the position of the National
Bureau of Statistics the
party notes that under
Wike’s evil administration
no Rivers State Indigene
has been employed into
the Civil Service instead
those employed like the
13,200 Teachers employed
by Amaechi were sacked.
This is the character that
Pastor Egbe and his group
are campaigning for.
The party reiterated
that any group that embarked
upon the re-elec-
Amaechi, minister of Transportation
sultant to Davies Ibiamu
Ikanya, the state chairman
of Rivers APC further
stated that nobody who
loves Rivers State and her
future will take this group
serious in its wild goose
chase of re-electing Wike
come 2019.
The party asks, “How
on earth could Governor
Wike who ensured that
our civil servants and pensioners
are not paid their
entitlements when due but
prefers to give them loans,
could not provide any employment
to any Rivers
State son or daughter
throughout his three years
of misguided governance;
turned Rivers State into
Rivers of blood and Port
Harcourt from the garden
city status to Port Harcourt
city of garbage and dustbin;
ensured that all the
industries and facilities put
up by the administration of
Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi
Amaechi to reposition the
State as an emerging great
economic power in Africa
are either vandalised or
rendered redundant will be
re-elected if not to invite
disaster to the State.”
The party further stated
that under the administration
of Governor Wike,
Rivers state stands out
as the worst in areas of
unemployment with highest
unemployment rate of
41.82 percent in the countion
of Wike whose administration
in Rivers State
has brought more harm,
hardship and shame to
the state than any other
administration since the
creation of the State in
1967 should be considered
as a great enemy of Rivers
State.
“Based on these facts,
the party urged the entire
Rivers State indigenes to
unite and team up with
APC to salvage the State
from the hands of misguided
elements currently
destroying and ruining the
State come 2019.”
APC has quality aspirants
– Chukuwemeka Eze
The APC has however said
it considers itself as the
Wike did not stop at some of
the above crimes against Rivers
State, he ensured that all the
modern and model schools
constructed, completed, and
operational by the administration
of Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi are
kept under lock and key; and
to complete his destructive act
against the educational future of
our youths
beautiful bride and sole
platform through which
Rivers State will be liberated
from the shackles of
the demonic, bloodletting,
misrule and bad governance
currently the lots
of our people under the
watch of Governor Nyesom
Wike.
The party noted that
with the cream of seasoned
technocrats, political
leaders, bureaucrats
and some of the best brains
of Rivers State considering
the party as the only platform
to use to actualise
their dreams for better and
greater Rivers State the liberation
of the State is now
more feasible than ever.
The party not minding
the numerous high class
candidates desiring to fly
the flag of the party; she
pledges a level playing
ground to all her candidates
during the primaries.
Revealing how Wike
has allegedly ruined the
economy of Rivers State,
the party expressed sadness
that the Songhai farm
located at Bunu-Tai/Ban-
Ogoi in Tai Local Council
covering over 314 hectares
of land that was introduced
after studying the
Songhai Centre in Porto
Novo, Benin Republic, including
the Songhai Rivers
Initiative Farm (SRIF),
which is 20 times the size
of its prototype in Porto
Novo and the biggest agricultural
training project/
programme in the country,
has been vandalised and
put out of use by Wike’s
administration.
The party notes that
the Fish Farms at Buguma
Andoni, Ubima and Opobo
with total production capacity
of these farms at
5,000 tons per annum all
commissioned and operational
before Amaechi left
office in 2015 have been
rendered redundant by the
Wike’s administration.
As if the above harms
were not enough, the Banana
Plantation Development
Initiative aimed at
the cultivation, production
and export of banana
for commercial purposes
in partnership with San
Carlos Nig. Ltd with about
6,000,000 boxes of banana
produced annually
and marketed locally and
internationally with 2,000
hectares of land acquired
for the project at Khana
and Tai LGAs were all destroyed
by the Wike’s administration.
With all these diabolical
acts, Wike has destabilised
the goals of most of these
industries that include creating
employment opportunities
for the people of
Rivers State, promoting
enterprise development
especially amongst the
younger generation, promoting
research in new
agricultural techniques
and varieties, encouraging
skills transfer and adopting
appropriate technology by
local farmers, enhancing
agricultural production
and value addition, building
interest in commercial
farming, and facilitating
agro-tourism in the state.
Wike did not stop at
some of the above crimes
against Rivers State, he
ensured that all the modern
and model schools
constructed, completed,
and operational by the
administration of Chibuike
Rotimi Amaechi are kept
under lock and key; and to
complete his destructive
act against the educational
future of our youths, he
ordered the sacking of
all the 13,200 Teachers
employed by the administration
of Amaechi and
stopped all the scholarship
schemes both foreign and
local.