2015: Jonathan’s boast to win Rivers is laughable – APC

Okafor Ofiebor/Port Harcourt

The All Progressives Congress (APC), Rivers state chapter, has dismissed as ridiculous, the boast by President Goodluck Jonathan that his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will recover the state from the hands of APC during the 2015 general elections.

Dr Davis Ibiam Ikanya, APC chairman, in Rivers state said the boast made on Saturday by President Jonathan during PDP’s South-South Rally in Benin City, Edo state capital, is ridiculous because it runs counter to the realities on ground in Rivers state.

According to a statement issued on Sunday in Port Harcourt by the Rivers APC Chairman: “President Jonathan’s boast is obviously based on ignorance about current political realities in Rivers state. He may not have known that the state PDP leader and prospective governorship candidate, Minister for State of Education, Nyesome Wike, has polarised PDP in Rivers state to the extent that it cannot even win a councillorship seat in a fair and free election”.

Ikanya pointed that Wike, on whom Mr. President is building his hopes of PDP reclaiming Rivers state, has lost political relevance since he left the mainstream of the political family that binds Rivers state together under the leadership of the man that made him whatever he is politically today – Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi.
He said: “Wike is either deluding himself or deliberately feeding Mr. President with lies in a bid to feather his nest”.

Ikanya also cited Jonathan’s wickedness towards Rivers state as yet another reason why PDP can never recapture power in the state.

“On what basis should the people of Rivers vote for PDP in 2015? Is it based on the wicked policies of the Jonathan administration against Rivers state and her people? Is it based on the ceding of our oil wells to his home state, Bayelsa and supporting Akwa Ibom and Abia states to take over our oil wells? Or is it because he has ensured that the Federal Government does not site any meaningful project in Rivers State? Or his deliberate refusal to implement the UNEP Report on Ogoni? President Jonathan has left no one in doubt of his deep hatred for Rivers state and her people, so how can we support him or any PDP candidate in 2015?”

Rivers APC declared that “in any case, the feats of the Amaechi administration are enough to give us victory in future elections. These feats, which are well known, include making Port Harcourt the World Book Capital City, eradication of militancy, dogged fight for the oil wells and other rights of Rivers state”.

The party advised President Jonathan to stop deceiving his followers about Rivers state.

Ikanya who made this in statement signed on his behalf by Senior Special Adviser on media, Eze Chukwuemeka Eze, said that Rivers people have since adopted APC as the party of their choice and there is nothing the doomed PDP or any other party can do about that.