by Azubuike Azikiwe

The All Progressives Congress, APC, says President Goodluck Jonathan is oblivious of reality, following his statement that the Peoples Democratic Party will win back Rivers and Edo States at the upcoming elections.

During a rally organised by the South-South PDP in Edo on Saturday, 27 September, Jonathan had declared that the ruling party will recapture the states at the 2015 and 2016 governorship elections in Rivers and Edo states respectively.

In a reaction to the President’s bullish statement, the Chairman of the Rivers State Chapter of the APC, Dr. Davies Ikanya, says the declaration was a ridiculous boast which showed that Jonathan was ignorant of the political realities in the state.

Ikanya released a statement on Sunday, 28 September, through his Senior Special Adviser on Media, Chief Chukwuemeka Eze.

He said, “The All Progressives Congress, Rivers State chapter, has dismissed as ridiculous the boast by President Goodluck Jonathan that his Peoples Democratic Party will recover the state from the hands of the APC during the 2015 general elections. This boast made on Saturday by President Jonathan during the PDP’s South-South rally in Benin City, the Edo State capital, is ridiculous because it runs counter to the realities on ground in Rivers State.”

“President Jonathan’s boast is obviously based on ignorance about current political realities in Rivers State. He may not have known that the state PDP leader and prospective governorship candidate, Nyesome Wike, has polarised the PDP in Rivers State to the extent that it cannot even win a councillorship seat in a free and fair election. Wike (Minister of State for Education) is either deluding himself or deliberately feeding Mr. President with lies in a bid to feather his nest.”

Ikanya’s statement also said that the people of Rivers had no reason to vote for the PDP at the upcoming elections, considering the fact that Jonathan had ceded the state’s oil wells to people from his home state of Bayelsa.

“On what basis should the people of Rivers State vote for the PDP in 2015? Is it based on the ceding of our oil wells to his home state of Bayelsa and supporting Akwa Ibom and Abia states to take over our oil wells? Is it because he has ensured that the Federal Government does not cite any meaningful project in Rivers State or his deliberate refusal to implement the UNEP Report on Ogoni? President Jonathan has left no one in doubt of his deep hatred for Rivers State and her people. So, how can we support him or any PDP candidate in 2015.”

Kolapo Olapoju