Rivers: Wike joined APC to further his political career, say Party leaders

On Thursday, some APC leaders in Rivers State claimed that Nyesom Wike, a former governor of the state, joined the group to preserve his political future.

They also pointed out that the former minister of state for education wasn’t to be commended for the party’s expansion in the state.

The Rivers State chieftains claimed in a statement released to our correspondent in Abuja on behalf of the party leaders that the formation and growth of the APC in the state required “the efforts of several loyal members, who mostly lost their lives in the struggle to ensure a solid party structure in the state.” Darlington Nwajulu is the state publicity secretary of the APC in Rivers State.

The party leaders also stated that it was unfair for President Bola Tinubu to reward a man for running the party’s affairs while the group was subjected to numerous attacks in the state.

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“We closed the significant gap left by the 2015 presidential election with a growth of 23.8% from 2015 to 2019.” Then, in Rivers State, the APC received an additional 80,881 votes in favour of winning the 2023 presidential election.

“The question is, where is Wike’s helping hand from his time as governor? With only 80,881 votes, can he really say that he helped the Rivers APC, given that we have been growing organically since 2019?

The chieftains questioned, “Can a non-party man take over a national ruling party in a state, simply because he claims to have helped the national party in his state with only 80,881 votes when such claims couldn’t be substantiated by empirical data?”

The party leaders continued in the statement by pointing out that Wike joined the APC in an effort to save his political career.

There is proof that Wike did not work for the APC, they claimed. After learning that his political career was over, he made the decision to join the APC in order to have a safe haven from which to rob the APC in Rivers State.