by Azubuike Azikiwe

For some reason, the elders in Rivers State don’t want Nyesom Wike as the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party.

To register their disapproval, they have issued a seven-day ultimatum to the PDP to withdraw Wike, from the governorship race.

Speaking on the platform of the Rivers Leaders and Elders’ Council, they advised the PDP and the President to ask him to step down, in order to avoid losing the governorship election in the state.

The elders implored President Goodluck Jonathan to make certain that Wik withdraws as the governorship candidate before or on January 5, 2015, in his (Jonathan) own interest and other persons’ interest.

Chairman of the council, Chief Albert Horsfall, issued this ultimatum in Port Harcourt on Monday, December 29, saying that people of the state would vote for only the political party that presented a riverine person as their candidate should Wike fail to withdraw from the governorship race.

Horsfall instructed leaders and elders from the various ethnic groups in the state to vote for the ‘next bigger’ political party that presented a riverine person as their flag bearer.

According to him, the people of the state would not be bought over with money or be intimidated into succumbing to injustice and slavery for the next 50 years as a result of the failure of the state PDP to embrace zoning of the governorship position in the state.