Rivers’ rerun polls: Amaechi confident APC will snatch Ogoni despite Wike’s resistance

The usual boasts before elections have reechoed in Rivers State where the Minister of Transportation, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, has said his All Progressives Congress (APC) was ready to sweep the polls in Ogoni areas in the rerun election fixed for December 10, 2016. The State Governor, Nyesom Wike, leader of the rival People’s Democratic Party (PDP), had earlier boasted that any time the rerun was held, his party would sweep the polls. The most prominent figure in the election is Amaechi’s ally, Magnus Abe, who seeks to return to the Senate. Wike is doing everything to stop such a prospect as Amaechi seems bent on getting it right.

Speaking at a rally in Bera community in Gokana Local Government Area, Amaechi said winning in Ogoni and Rivers South-East Senatorial District had already been foreclosed considering the support the party enjoys in the district, adding that where the contest existed would be in Ikwerre and Ahoada areas. He said: “If there is one place that APC should win is Ogoni.

But Wike says he must win here. He is not God and since he is not God, he will fail. The battle is not here at all. The battle is in Ikwerre and Ahoada axis. So, he had better forget here”. The former governor said the support of the district stemmed from both developmental projects he sited in the area and appointments given to sons and daughters in the area while he was governor.

He, therefore, charged Wike to match the achievements he (Amaechi) left Ogoni land or supersede them. Explaining further, Amaechi reminded the people of the number of indigent persons in the area given scholarships to study abroad while he was governor but were heartlessly repatriated by Governor Wike. “He could not take your children to overseas.

Instead of taking them there, he returned them to Nigeria; poor innocent children, poor children of poor families,” he said. The minister urged the people to turnout enmasse to vote for APC, assuring them of protection against threats from the governor, adding that the governor’s threats should not be ignored as his utterances and actions depict him “as a thug capable of doing anything”. “It is only a thug that can stand in front of a judge’s gate and be struggling with security men. A governor will go back to his house and call the president.

When the SSS invaded the Presidential lodge of the Akwa State Government House, the governor didn’t go to the gate. He called the President. And they were asked to return to Abuja. Instead of this one to call the President, what did he do? Go and fight. Only a thug can do that.

In all the fight I had with the Federal Government with former President Goodluck Jonathan, nobody saw me physically battling with anybody. When I became governor, there were so many people appointed by Odili. There were so many businesses by Odili’s people. Did I stop any? No. Wike doesn’t know what it is to govern”.