With about two months to the presidential election, Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State has explained why he shut down the Peoples Democratic Party Atiku/Okowa presidential campaign office in Port Harcourt.
Wike said he sealed-off the campaign office because it was sited in Port Harcourt without government approval.
The Governor said he evoked Executive Orders 21 and 22 to give legal support to the sealing-off of the campaign office.
He disclosed this at the inauguration of the 17.2 kilometres-long Bori-Kono Road in Baen community of Khana Local Government Area of the State.
According to him, “A few days ago, Maeba and Abiye went to Igboukwu Street, D-Line (Port Harcourt) without the approval of the government to site a political office.
“We are talking about Executive Orders 21 and 22 that have now been taken over by the law passed by the State House of Assembly. We did not send the chairman of Port Harcourt council to go and bring it (the building) down. We have the power.”
The PDP has been embroiled in an internal crisis over the failure of the party’s national chairman, Iyorchia Ayu, to resign his position to pave the way for a southerner.
Wike is aggrieved with the PDP’s leadership due to the rotation of key positions in the party.
PDP zoned its presidential ticket and the National Chairman to the North, while sidelining the Southern part of the country.
To this end, Wike and the integrity group have been agitating for the removal of Ayu as the PDP’s National Chairman.