Rivers State government has dismissed the allegation by the Africa Action Congress (AAC) that Governor Nyesom Wike was behind the party crisis.
AAC had alleged that Wike’s “plan scuttled the party’s efforts to reclaim its mandate” at the Rivers State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, which led to the contentious removal of Omoyele Sowore as national chairman and appointment of Leonard Nzenwa in acting capacity.
It would be recalled that in reaction to his replacement, Sowore announced the expulsion of Ezenwa, the former national secretary, for anti-party activities.
A statement on Friday by Biokpomabo Festus Awara, AAC Rivers governorship candidate, alleged that, “Mr. Nzenwa, having received an undisclosed sum of Rivers money, is acting a script given to him by forcing the lawyer representing us at the Election Petition Tribunal, Tawo E. Tawo (SAN) to withdraw from representing us and imposing one of the known cronies of the Rivers State governor to take over the case.”
“We have it on a good authority that Gov. Wike single-handedly financed the ‘failed suspension’ of our National Chairman, Omoyele Sowore and in a bid to buy more members of the party, he (Wike) has also reached out to the National Legal Adviser of our party Barr. Inibehe Effiong who declined to accept the bribe offered him by the governor.
“To this end, we are calling on Mr Nyesom Wike to channel the resources he is expending on bribing everyone just to scuttle our victory at the Tribunal to other meaningful ventures like addressing the infrastructural deficit in the state and problems of insecurity rather than wasting our resources on bribery.
“We therefore call on Rivers People to remain calm as we continue with our case at the Tribunal.”
Reacting, however, Simeon Nwakaudu, Special Assistant to the Governor on Electronic Media, told DAILY POST that his principal had no hand in AAC crisis.
He said: “Like the governor has always said, he is a PDP leader; he has nothing to do with any other party. He won his election fair and square, Rivers people defended their votes, they gave him their mandate.
“The governor is also at the tribunal. PDP lawyers are at the tribunal defending the mandate on behalf of Rivers people. He has no hand in their crisis.
“There’s is no party like AAC in the first place. It has nothing in Rivers state, the party is an online party. It doesn’t exist in Rivers or anywhere in Nigeria. How many votes did AAC score in the presidential election or any other election for that matter?
“The mandate is clear, the people voted for him overwhelmingly. Governor Wike won the election by over 712,000 votes and on May 29, he will go for his second term inauguration.”
Comments