A governorship aspirant on the platform of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Rivers State, Soalabo West, has stated that a riverine governor will succeed Governor Nyesom Wike on May 29 next year, in order to make the Niger Delta state great again.
West, an energy and maritime lawyer from the Kalabari (riverine) part of Rivers state, stressed that he was not bothered about last week’s declaration by Wike of PDP, who is from the upland part of the state, to seek reelection in 2019.
The governorship aspirant, on Monday in an interactive session with reporters in Port Harcourt, expressed optimism of emerging victorious at the primary election of the PDP.
He said: “The argument in 2015 was that Rivers was a PDP state and the people of the state needed to wrest the leadership of the state from the All Progressives Congress (APC), the party which the then incumbent governor, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, defected to in 2013.
“Governorship aspirants from the riverine ethnic nationalities were asked in 2015 to work with Wike, not because the upland/riverine dichotomy was not there, but essentially because of imperatives of the time, especially that Rivers State should go to the PDP and that the state should be properly mobilised to deliver majority votes to the then President Goodluck Jonathan in the 2015 presidential election.”
West also stated that his governorship aspiration was propelled by the desire to bring to the fore vision, youthful vigour, a pragmatic and dynamic approach to the development of Rivers State, devoid of political bickering and sectarian exclusiveness that were currently being institutionalised.
The PDP governorship aspirant pleaded with the youths and other stakeholders to do away with violence and thuggery, in order to have peaceful, free, fair and credible primaries and general elections.
