Governor Nyesom Ezenwo Wike has said Rivers state has once again reasserted itself as one of premier strongholds of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the country following the victory of Sir Siminalayi Fubara as governor-elect.
The governor noted that despite evil machination of the opposition, the PDP has consistently won all the governorship elections in the State since 2015.
Governor Wike stated these shortly after the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) announced Fubara as the winner of the 2023 governorship election on Monday night.
Fubara, who was the PDP candidate polled 302,614 votes to defeat is closest rival, Mr. Tonye Cole of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who had 95,274 votes. The Social Demcratic Party candidate, Senator Magnus Abe came a distant third with 46,981.
Wike at the occasion labelled a former Transport Minister, Rotimi Amaechi, a liar and frustrated politician describing as ludicrous Amaechi’s allegations that the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, once worked under him as a minister.
The governor called on security agencies to arrest him following his spurious claims that he opposed the reappointment of Yakubu because the INEC’s chairman was nominated by someone in the President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu’s camp of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Wike said Amaechi’s public tantrums were tantamount to public incitement and should be treated as a threat to national security.
The governor, in a state broadcast on the outcome of the March 18th general elections in Rivers on Tuesday, said Amaechi’s outburst that the just conducted general elections by INEC was the worst in Nigeria’s history was laughable.
Wike said: “The truth was that Mahmood Yakubu never worked under me. Both of us worked in the Federal Ministry of Education. He was the Executive Secretary of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund, supervised by the Minister of Education, while I was the Minister of State for Education.
“At any rate, was Mahmood Yakubu INEC’s chairman in the 2015 general elections in Rivers State when we defeated him and his political party as a sitting Governor and Director-General of Muhammadu Buhari’s Presidential Campaign?”
