From Tony John, Port Harcourt
Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, has told those who said Nigeria is not ripe for Muslim-Muslim ticket not to also justify and embrace efforts by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to retain the presidency in the North.
He spoke, yesterday, at the special dedication service for the Rivers State PDP 2023 General Election Campaigns Rallies, at St. Paul’s Anglican Church, Port Harcourt.
Governor Wike urged those who condemn the Muslim-Muslim ticket of the APC as wrong to also know that it was wrong to retain the presidency in the North after President Muhammadu Buhari.
“You play on people’s intelligence; you say Nigeria is not ripe for Muslim-Muslim ticket, I agree. But is Nigeria ripe for the presidency to remain in one zone? I mean, just look at the insult. You blow hot and cold. Most of you just sit there, you don’t ask yourselves questions. Somebody continues to sell this kind of cheap ideas. You don’t ask the person, I agree with what you are saying but look at what we are saying here. Your party wants the presidency to go to the same zone where president Muhammadu Buhari is coming from. Who is cheating who?”
He reminded the church of the need for it to participate in the voting process for next year’s polls. He, however, pleaded with it to be careful and resist those politicians who come to mobilise them as if there was a religious war to wage.
He also warned that his administration would not allow those who in the past instigated wanton destruction of lives and property in the state under the guise of politics to repeat same.
He appealed to members of the PDP in the state to resist deliberate attempt by some disgruntled and inconsequential politicians to provoke them ahead of the elections.
He described as ludicrous and cheap blackmail the allegation by Abiye Sekibo and some of his associates that the state government recently sent thugs to attack them.
Wike declared that he has never engaged in acts of political violence in all his political career, and advised those who might be planning to plunge the state into chaos to have a rethink.
He said the reason Sekibo and his associates were begrudging him was because he did not support their ambition to get the PDP governorship ticket.