Rivers State Governor, Chief Nyesom Wike, has been told to apologise and refund the N10 billion from the state coffers which he allegedly wasted on last Saturday’s inconclusive National Convention of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). The State Chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) made the demand in a statement signed by its Chairman, Dr. Davies Ibiamu Ikanya, and issued on Tuesday in Port Harcourt.

Rivers APC said: “The well advertised PDP National Convention in Port Harcourt has come and gone with its disastrous outcome. With the party now factionalised into three, the demise of the once greatest political party in Africa is not far from sight.

“As much as we sympathise with the endangered party of the torn umbrella, we hereby unreservedly condemn Chief Nyesom Wike for wasting a whopping sum of N10 billion belonging to the good people of Rivers State on this charade, especially in these lean times. This is not only condemnable but also abhorrent and unacceptable to the good people of Rivers State. We therefore request Chief Wike and his cotravellers to account for and return this huge sum to the Rivers State treasury as we cannot continue to fold our hands and watch him mortgage the future of Rivers State through his shocking financial recklessness.”

Rivers APC berated PDP leaders who turned up for the ill-fated convention, saying that they should have known better. “Those PDP leaders who gathered in Port Harcourt to waste the scarce resources of Rivers State are as guilty as their host, Chief Wike. For crying out loud, they should have known that the so called National Convention would be a charade in view of the court order barring any such exercise and with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) stating from the very beginning that it would neither participate nor recognise the outcome of the purported convention,” Rivers APC said.

The party sympathised with PDP Acting National Chairman, Alhaji Ali Modu Sheriff, who was unceremoniously removed in Port Harcourt after being lured with the fake promise that he would be made to contest and win election as the party’s substantive chairman. The statement, however, wondered how Sheriff despite his wealth of political experience could fall into the hands of treacherous Wike who, together with out-voted former president, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, destroyed PDP when they ensured that Rt. Hon. Chibuike Amaechi and other party pillars were forced out of PDP, thus inadvertently laying the foundation for the party’s loss of power. “We wonder why Sheriff is crying that he was betrayed at Port Harcourt,” Rivers APC said, adding: “If we may ask, does a leopard change its spots? If Wike could betray and ridicule Amaechi, who did everything humanly possible to make him Obio-Akpor Local Government Chairman, his Chief of Staff and nominated him as a Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, then we wonder why Sheriff or any other PDP leader should trust him not to betray them.”

•Photo shows Governor Wike

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