Former Minister of State for Education, Nyesom Wike has won the Rivers Peoples Democratic Party’s governorship primaries.
Wike, believed to be the anointed candidate of the wife of President Goodluck Jonathan, Patience had resigned to enable him contest the party’s ticket.
The former minister polled 1,083 of the 1,108 total votes cast to beat the other five aspirants to the ticket, while Dumbari Dimkpa came a distant second with 21 votes.
West Ibinabo got three votes while Emmanuel Georgewill and Lee Maeba got one vote each.
However, 17 out of the 24 governorship aspirants boycotted the exercise.
In his post-election, Wike commended his opponents and urged them to join hands with them in ensuring victory for the party at all elections to be held in the state, just as he pledged to deliver the state to President Goodluck Jonathan come February next year.
Wike’s emergence runs against the tide of PDP stakeholders in the state who have warned against fielding the former minister as the party’s governorship candidate.
Rivers State people, under the aegis of Rivers State Elders and Leaders, had warned President Goodluck Jonathan and the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, against imminent explosion and collapse of the state, if the party presents the immediate Minister of State for Education, Nyesom Wike as its governorship candidate in the 2015 general elections.
Rising from a meeting with Edwin Clark at his Asokoro residence, Abuja, the leaders and elders called on President Jonathan, PDP National Chairman, Adamu Muazu, the entire leadership of the party, that anarchy looms in the state following what they termed, the inordinate political ambition of an individual, who wants to impose himself on the people, even against the wishes of the people.
Meanwhile, Chief Clark, who noted that the situation in Rivers State PDP has become explosive as no one could predict what will happen later, if what he described as injustice, were not addressed, said that an individual has been masquerading himself as the owner of PDP, adding that there can never be peace in Rivers State, if there was no justice and if the PDP fails to respect its constitution.
In a letter addressed to the president at the end of its meeting, the elders, who condemned the rising violence and killings in various parts of the state, stressed that if nothing was done urgently, the ambition of an individual would throw the state into anarchy and war, which they said will not augur well for the state and the country, adding that the violence and activities of some politicians in the state have become so worrisome that they are calling on President Jonathan to intervene to restore sanity.
The elders who insisted that the PDP must respect zoning and allow the riverine area of the state to produce the next governor, warned that if that was not looked into, the party may not be happy at the end of the day, adding that the state will vote for President Goodluck Jonathan next year as he already has 75 percent of Rivers State.
The letter which was read by Chief Albert Horsfall, called on the president and leadership of PDP to order the cancellation of all the congresses and state House of Assembly primaries conducted, just as they called for the dismantling of all PDP structures in the state, said to have been taken over by Wike-led Grassroot Democratic Initiative, GDI and called for a fresh congress by the party national leadership.
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