The Peoples Democratic Party Presidential Campaign Council has cancelled the rally of its candidate, Atiku Abubakar, in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
Newsflash Nigeria understands that the Presidential campaign rally in Rivers State is slated for Tuesday, February 14, 2023.
But due to the rise in attacks on APC members and supporters of its presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the chairman of the PDP Presidential Campaign Council in the State, Senator Lee Maeba, announced the cancellation of the rally.
Addressing journalists in Port Harcourt on Monday, Senator Lee Maeba, said Governor Nyesom Ezenwo Wike had already declared members of the campaign council and Atiku supporters in the state as enemies of the State.
Maeba stated that supporters of the PDP presidential candidate in the state have been suffering different forms of life-threatening attacks since May 2022 when Wike lost the party’s presidential ticket to Atiku.
He said: “It is therefore instructive to note that this directive has direction in the vituperation of an overt act of Governor Nyesom Ezenwo Wike.
“In this instance, he has openly branded members of the PDP Presidential Campaign Council and all supporters of the presidential candidate as enemies of the state and vowed to crush them. Video evidence abounds to support our assertion.
“He admitted carrying out that attack on Dr. Abiye Sekibo and Senator Lee Maeba in his earlier statement at Eleme during a gubernatorial campaign rally on Friday, February 10, 2023.
“He boosted that the two armed robbers, Dr. Abiye Sekibo and Senator Lee Maeba were chased away when they came to take land belonging to the Rivers State government and they are lucky they ran away before his arrival at the scene. He tried to make an unimpressive denial which does not hold water the next day.
Senator Maeba added,” The expected victory of Atiku Abubakar does not worth the blood of any Rivers man or woman.”
Recall that last week, the chairman of the PDP presidential campaign council in Rivers, Dr. Abiye Sekibo was attacked in Port Harcourt.
His vehicle was riddled with bullets.
Sekibo had accused policemen attached to Rivers Government House of being behind the incident but Governor Nyesom Wike denied it.
Wike had initially revoked the use of Adokiye Amiesimaka Stadium as the venue of the campaign but he later made a U-Turn, saying some persons had been sent to dialogue with him.
Wike and Atiku have been at loggerheads since the Rivers governor lost the presidential ticket to the former Vice-President.
He and his allies, under the Integrity Group, had distanced themselves from the campaign, giving the resignation of Senator Iyioricha Ayu as the party’s National Chairman as a condition for them to campaign for Atiku, but the party called their bluff.
Wike is the leader of G-5 a group comprising Governors Seyi Makinde (Oyo), Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia), Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Enugu), and Samuel Ortom (Benue).
