25th August, 2022
By Okafor Ofiebor/Port Harcourt
Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike has fired back at former governor of Jigawa State, Sule Lamido, saying only persons plagued by schizophrenia psychosis, will ascribe any form of relevance to him.
Wike was reacting to attack on his personality by Lamido when he appeared in an interview on Channels TV.
Lamido accused Wike of acting like an emperor with his “bombastic rants,” arguing that the governor did not have sole control of the structure of the party in the oil-rich state.
Lamido argued that Wike would become a political ‘destitute’ in eight months when his tenure as governor would expire.
But reacting on behalf of Wike on Wednesday in a statement, Kelvin Ebiri, the governor’s Special Assistant on Media described Lamido’s remark about Wike as disdainful.
He said while the state government could not deny that Lamido has an inalienable right to his personal opinion, he however, lacked the right to malign Wike, whose immense contributions to the sustenance of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, was not in dispute.
According to Ebiri “It is rather appalling that at a time when concerted efforts are being made by lovers of true democracy and the unity of the party, to resolve some inherent contradictions plaguing the PDP, Alhaji Lamido and his cohorts, who have since lost their relevance in the polity, are busy creating friction and schism.
“Governor Wike, has never claimed to be custodian of the over 3 million votes in Rivers State. But as the leader of the PDP and good people of Rivers State, anyone who underrates the governor’s political pedigree or dares to ignore his influence in the State and beyond, will be doing so at his own peril.
“We wish to remind Alhaji Lamido that governor Wike has never left anyone in doubt about his capacity to sway the voters in Rivers State in a direction that benefits the people and the State, in the overall. When he speaks, Rivers people will listen, no doubt.”
He added: “Perhaps, Alhaji Lamido thinks Nigerians are suffering from selective amnesia to have forgotten in a hurry, the ignoble role he and his cohorts played between 2014 and 2015, that culminated in the defeat of the PDP in 2015 general election.
“We hope that he is not up in such scheme again to cause a repeat of that history. Otherwise, if Alhaji Lamido has any modicum of conscience, he won’t be making disparaging comments about governor Wike, whom many have described as the pillar of the PDP since 2015.”
He said that no well meaning member of the PDP would describe Wike as ‘insignificant’ in the affairs of the PDP, saying that with all modesty, “only persons plagued by schizophrenia psychosis, will ascribe any form of relevance to Alhaji Lamido, under whose leadership the PDP has woefully lost two governorship elections in Jigawa State in quick succession.”
Ebiri recalled that “Under Lamido’s watch, as a governor of Jigawa State in 2015, the APC governorship candidate, Mohammed Badaru Abubakar, scored a total 648,045 votes to defeat his PDP opponent, Malam Aminu Ringim, who scored a total 479, 447 votes. Worst still, in 2019, governor Abubakar polled 810,933, while the PDP candidate scored 288,356.
“Such records depict that Alhaji Lamido cannot and does not have such political following that will benefit the PDP. Those who want electoral victory for the PDP are not dampening the morale required for political offensive at APC, but Alhaji Lamido is cracking the wall of unity badly.
“Let it be told that in 2015, governor Wike, as an opposition candidate in Rivers State polled 1,029,102 votes to defeat the then ruling APC governorship candidate, Dakuku Peterside, who managed to garner a paltry 124,896 votes. And in 2019, the governor also won by landslide. This are marks of political sagacity and determination to keep PDP at a leading pedestal.
“So, as the 2023 general elections beckons, we wish to advise Alhaji Lamido to redeem his battered political image by delivering Jigawa State to the PDP, if he can.”