The Rivers State chapter of the African Democratic Congress, ADC, has faulted the comments credited to Nyesom Wike, the minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja that Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi stands no chance in Rivers in the 2027 election as an empty boast made to deceive the people.
The state chairman of the ADC, Dr. Chukwudi Dimkpa, said it was inhuman for Wike to use an event organized in his honour by the City Boy Movement at Omagwa to attack Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, the Vice Presidential candidate of ADC on the day he was burying his mother.
Dimkpa said that Wike’s boast of defeated Amaechi by 12 noon on election-day amounts to political rascality taken too far, noting that there is always a time for politics and a time for humanity, which should have guided Wike’s actions.
He said: “Elections are not won by boasts, intimidation or political strongmen announcing results in advance. Rivers people will vote, the votes will be counted, and INEC, not Wike will declare the winner…
“On a day when Rotimi Amaechi was burying his mother and people from across Nigeria were travelling to Ubima to commiserate with the family, Wike and the chairman of Ikwerre Local Government Area (Charles Wobodo) chose that same route and occasion for a political reception.
“They obstructed part of the road, creating unnecessary traffic and then turning the event into a platform for attacking and taunting a man who was mourning his mother. It was insensitive, provocative and embarrassing”, he said.
“If Wike could not suspend his political obsession with Amaechi even for the few hours in which the man was laying his mother to rest, then Rivers people should ask themselves who really is consumed by this rivalry.
“We refused to dignify the provocation with a response that day (Saturday) because our attention was on giving Mama (Dame Ezinne Amaechi) a befitting burial. But Wike should understand that Rivers State belongs to all of us.
“Nobody owns the people, nobody owns their votes, and certainly, nobody can declare an election result by 12 noon”.
Dimkpa however, urged Rivers people not to be intimidated by anybody, but be prepared to make the right choice in 2027 by electing a credible leader that would add value to their lives,
