Some political leaders and stakeholders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Rivers State have called on the people of the state to support the party\'s governorship candidate in the April general elections, Hon. Rotimi Amaechi for continuity and development.
The leaders, who spoke to newsmen in Port Harcourt after a meeting, also urged other ethnic nationalities in the state to stop petitioning or orchestrating moves to withdraw Amaechi as the party\'s governorship candidate.
The state Commissioner for Commerce and Industry, Chief Elemchukwu Ogbowu, told newsmen that equity and fairness demanded that the South-West Senatorial Zone where Governor Odili comes from should no longer produce the next governor of the state.
“I am appealing to our brothers and sisters to support Amaechi in the April elections because he has been chosen by the people.
“We are talking about somebody who will take over from Governor Odili and continue with the good work he started. Amaechi will unite the people of Rivers State,” he said.
The commissioner said that as a legislator, who served with Amaechi in the Assembly, he saw the leadership qualities in him, which had programmed and put him in a better position to govern the state.
In his address, a former chairman of Opobo/Nkoro Local Government Council, Mr Dakuku Peterside, said that the Ijaw National Congress (INC) had not made any categorical statement on the governorship of Rivers.
He said that concept of riverine and upland in choosing who would govern the state was anaemic because the constitution of the nation in terms of distribution of political offices, took cognisance of senatorial zones, constituencies and local governments.
Peterside said that in 2003, the former minister of labour, Chief Tonye Graham-Douglas, relied on the constitutional provision on power distribution to say that it would be the turn of Ikwerre to rule the state after Governor Peter Odili who was from Rivers West Senatorial District.
“To talk about riverine and upland now shows that it is not only belated but that we lack ideas of what democracy is all about. Rivers West Senatorial District has ruled the state, and it is now the turn of Rivers East to produce the next governor,” he said.
He urged the Ijaws to think of how the new leadership of the state would carry them along and develop their areas after the April elections and stop thinking of how to change the candidate already chosen by the people.
The Chairman of Gokana Local Government Council, Chief Fred Kpakol and his Obio/Akpor counterpart, Chief Nyesom Wike, also spoke in the same vein, when they appealed to the people to support Amaechi to win the governorship election.
Kpakol stated that Ogoni people supported Amaechi to pick the PDP ticket in the state and would give him massive votes.
