Obidients To Wike: LP Will Take Rivers From PDP

Supporters of the Labour Party presidential candidate called Obidients have vowed to pay back Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, in his own coin on Saturday during the governorship election in the state over his role in the just concluded presidential election.

Wike of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, had teamed up with the All Progressives Congress, APC, to ensure its candidate, Bola Tinubu, wins the presidential election in the state.

Tinubu was declared winner of the poll in Rivers State winning 21 out of 23 local government areas after garnering 231,591 votes as against Peter Obi’s 175,071 votes.

Obi who was the candidate of the Labour Party was tipped to win the state as he was believed to have the largest support base in the state.

When the collation exercise was under way in the state, Obi was leading Tinubu with 169,414 votes. Tinubu, who was considered an outsider with opinion polls showing he would fall short of the required 25%, was behind with 148,979 votes.

Tinubu was declared the winner when results from the remaining two local governments including Wike’s local government, Obio-Akpor, and Degema were declared.

Tinubu polled 80,239 in Obio-Akpor while Obi scored 3,829, according to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.

The result from the state has angered Obi supporters who have blamed Wike for leading the collation exercise to upturn the result against their candidate.

They are also frowning against the final outcome of the presidential election in which they alleged that Wike supported an outsider instead of one of his own. The election is a subject of dispute in court from both the Labour Party and PDP.

The Obi supporters who operate under the Obidients Movement have decided to queue behind the party’s candidate, Beatrice Itubo, who has vowed to defeat Siminalayi Fubara, the PDP candidate.

Fubara has been on the run from the operatives of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, who declared him wanted over alleged N117 billion frauds.

Itubo has keyed into the Obidients movement saying, “Labour Party is the party that represents equity, fairness, justice and fair play to all.”

Speaking on Sunday night on Channels TV, she said, “We are so tired of these old politicians in these big parties recycling themselves over the years and we have not seen any change.

“So, we have come now as Rivers people to identify with the Labour Party because we have a new breed of people that are coming up with new ideas to think out of the box to see how we can bring Rivers State and put it in the right place in the map of Nigeria.

“Though we have not held political offices, we have held other offices where we have excelled and Rivers people have confidence in us to lead the state. So, we are optimistic.

“What happened on the 25th of March will replicate itself on the 11th (of March) because the Labour Party won overwhelmingly. We had more than 85 percent of the votes cast,” vowing that the Labour Party would reclaim its “stolen mandate” following the conduct of the presidential election.

On the changing dynamics of Rivers politics, she said, “A woman has never ruled River State all this while and this is the right time. Even in the bible, when things become so difficult, God always uses women to come to the rescue.

“So, this time, I am seeing myself as the Debora of our time that God wants to use to rescue Rivers State from the tyranny, from the misrule, from everything that represents undemocratic processes,” she said.