Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, reportedly turned down the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) offer to control the State’s party structure.
Ibrahim Manga, the acting National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, disclosed that the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) had approached Fubara to nominate a candidate for the vacant state chairmanship position.
He however declined, insisting that his predecessor, Nyesom Wike, now Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), should choose the nominee instead.
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“The kind of opportunity given to Fubara by this party is the sort that you never imagine exists from any political party to any of its members, not a governor, not a president,” Manga said.
In a chat with Tribune, Manga emphasized that Fubara was given repeated chances to take leadership and control: “If I start talking now, I’ll dig out what we have been keeping in the cooler—the opportunities, the chances, the repeated chances given to this governor for him to take the leadership and take control of the structure.”
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He recounted Fubara’s response: “He said, ‘No, no, no’, nobody should call him that, they should call ‘oga in Abuja; let oga give the person; anyone oga gives he is comfortable.”
Manga questioned Fubara’s stance: “This was the beginning of the whole of this problem. He was the one who said he cannot take decisions when Nyesom Wike is still alive. That was before the relationship went sour. So, at what point did you now stop recognising him as your boss, that you start taking all of those decisions?”
Regarding potential disciplinary actions following the conduct of the Rivers Local Government elections, Manga stated: “That is a clear anti-party on the part of the Governor, and we will wait for him with that himself.”
Manga criticized Bauchi Governor Bala Mohammed’s involvement in inaugurating opposition party officials: “The governor that went to identify with him during the inauguration of the elected officials himself, the chairman of the governors’ forum, will be accused of anti-party.”
He concluded: “How will you now say you are serving PDP with this action alone?”
