2015: Jonathan's Boast To Recover Rivers For PDP Laughable, Says APC

BEVERLY HILLS, September 29, (THEWILL) - The Rivers State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has described as ridiculous, the boast by President Goodluck Jonathan that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will recover the State from the hands of APC during the 2015 general elections.

“This boast made on Saturday by President Jonathan during PDP's South-South Rally in Benin City, the Edo State capital, is ridiculous because it runs counter to the realities on ground in Rivers State,” the State APC leadership said in a statement issued Sunday in Port Harcourt by the state APC Chairman, Dr. Davies Ibiamu Ikanya.

According to the statement, “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, Junior Education Minister 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.

“Apart from this, Chief 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. Wike is either deluding himself or deliberately feeding Mr. President with lies in a bid to feather his nest.”

The statement also cited Jonathan's alleged neglect of Rivers State as yet another reason why PDP can never recapture power in the State.

The state APC also raised some posers for the President, asking : “On what basis should the people of Rivers State vote for PDP in 2015? Is it based on the … 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 of 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?”

The party however declared: “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 and her people, as well as award-winning achievements in Education, Agriculture, Health, etc.”

The party nonetheless advised President Jonathan “to stop deceiving his confused followers about Rivers State or any State in the Niger Delta for that matter, as they have abandoned both PDP and his candidature as they have not benefitted from his regime as a region.”

The statement declared that Rivers people have since adopted APC as the party of their choice, saying there is nothing the PDP or any other party can do about that.