Rivers Governor Nyesom Wike, has vowed to resist any cabal within and outside the state contemplating foisting his successor in 2023.

The Governor declared that he had not anointed anyone to succeed him in office. He urged church leaders in Rivers to pray for a rancour free transition ahead of 2023.

Wike spoke at a special thanksgiving church service in commemoration of the second anniversary of the second tenure of his administration at St Paul’s Cathedral, Diobu, Port Harcourt on Sunday.

The Governor, who described the remaining two years of his administration as crucial, said he had never sat with anyone in private and promised to hand over the realm of governance by the end of his tenure.

He said: “Let me say it again, I have never sat with anybody to say I will make you Governor. But, as a Governor, nobody from anywhere, be it in the party, in Abuja, will impose who will be the candidate of PDP in Rivers state.

“Nobody can impose a candidate here in this state. So, if you are running to Abuja, you are wasting your time,” he said.

Wike reiterated leaders and stakeholders in the state would meet at the appropriate time to collectively decide his successor. He also explained he was not unmindful that some persons pretending to be his ally were political foes plotting evil against his administration.

He prayed God to continue to expose such persons as the state geared up for another transition era. He urged the leadership of the church to pray and ceaselessly seek God’s intervention for a crisis free transition in 2023 and that the next governor of Rivers would be God fearing.

The Governor declared that despite the crisis orchestrated to destabilise his administration at the inception in 2015 and subsequently in 2019, he had steadfastly continue to deliver the dividend of democracy to the people of the state.

Wike, who ascribed the sustenance and successes of his administration to divine guidance and protection, said without God, there was no way he would have survived the machination of some All Progressives Congress (APC) Governors.

He explained his administration would not relent in delivering needed infrastructure to every part of the state despite the limited time left in his second tenure.

Wike, as part of effort to further address the issue of traffic gridlock experienced in some parts of Port Harcourt, announced his administration would award contract for the construction of a tenth flyover at Tank Junction in Rumukurushi, Obio-Akpor Local Government Area.

(The Nation)

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