The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State has expressed amazement over the recent solidarity visit to Governor Nyesom Wike by former ministers who served in the immediate past administration of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

The party in a statement signed by the State Chairman, Chief (Dr.) Davies Ibiamu Ikanya, described the solidarity visit as shameful and a bad omen for the country’s nascent democracy.

“We are shocked that Sule Lamido, erstwhile Jigawa State Governor and member of the defunct New PDP (nPDP) that exposed the evils of the Jonathan administration and thus contributed to its deserved fall, could lead such a solidarity visit to Chief Wike, who is notorious for his lawless administration, thus endorsing and motivating him to continue with the killing of both civilians and security agents, turning Rivers State to Rivers of Blood, thereby endangering our nascent democracy,” the statement issued on Tuesday in Port Harcourt said.

Rivers APC alleged that the solidarity visit was not necessarily informed by the ex-ministers’ love for Wike “but the love for Rivers State money which Wike has continued to spend as he wishes, forgetting that one day he will be asked to account for all the public funds being wasted on a party that brought Nigeria to its present sorrowful state.”

Continuing, the statement said: “We must sincerely sympathise with the ex-ministers, especially Lamido, a former Minister of Foreign Affairs, who was among visiting Northern Governors that were stoned and shot by members of Grassroot Democratic Initiative (GDI), the armed pressure group of Nyesom Wike, then Minister of State for Education, after which he described them as Fulani herdsmen. Today the same Sule Lamido is leading some disgruntled former ministers to support Wike in his killing spree in Rivers State.

“We can now understand why Wike after two days of this sinister nocturnal visit decided to embarrass himself during the commissioning of Ozuoba-Rumuoparaeli-Choba road on January 10, by brandishing a matchet in public and threatening to cut down all who stand in his way in Rivers State politics. One cannot but wonder how in the first place Rivers State people got here and when the governor’s office became reduced to this harum-scarum. How can a man occupying the exalted office of governor be talking like a motor park tout? This man has only succeeded in bringing shame to Rivers State, forgetting that power is transient.”

The party advised Lamido and the other ex-ministers “to stop wasting their time” and warned that “no amount of solidarity visit to a drowning man whose cup is full will save him and those supporting him from accounting for all the atrocities under their watch in Rivers State.”

Rivers PDP urged Wike “to prepare and face the police investigation squarely and explain to Nigerians why and how the rerun election was marred with violence orchestrated by his agents now with his failure to stop the Police investigation of the December 10th rerun election through the judiciary.”

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