The Rivers PDP leaders fought in Abuja over Governorship

There was pandemonium at the
National Campaign Office of the PDP
in Maitama, Abuja on Thursday as
thugs and politicians suspected to
be loyalists of the Minister of State
for Education, Mr. Nyesom Wike,
beat his suspected opponents.

Wike is among those aspiring to be
the governorship candidate of the
party in Rivers State in 2015.
The thugs, who were in their tens,
used dangerous weapons, such as
stick, bottles and stones to scare
away members of the party from the
state from gaining entrance into the
building, where members of the
National Integration Committee,
South-South zone, were meeting.

The meeting was aimed at settling
grievances among members of the
ruling party in the zone and
Thursday was allotted to hear the
grievances of those aggrieved in
Rivers State. But only Wike and his
supporters were allowed to enter
the venue of the meeting.

The top politicians who were beaten
and prevented entry into the
meeting are:
Mr. Tabotamuno Dick. a former
Commissioner for Water Resources
under former Governor Peter Odili;

Mr. Lolo Ibieneye; Prof. Israel
Owate, Dr. Sowaribi Tolofari, Mr.
Sara Egbe and Chief Bekinbo
Sobrekon.

According to Punch, some
journalists were also harassed while
others had either their cameras
damaged or their tape recorders
seized.

Dick, who is a legal adviser to the
Network for Defence of Democracy
and Good Governance, suffered an
injury near his left eye as a result of
the beating.

While the thugs were beating him,
policemen attached to the venue of
the meeting refused to intervene, as
one of them said they were
handicapped because of the
personalities involved.

However, the policemen joined the
thugs to chase away rival politicians
who were said not to be members of
Wike’s Grassroots Democratic
Initiatives.

Dick, who spoke with our
correspondent after the incident,
said, “I came to defend the petition
we sent to the committee, but see
what happened here today.

“I have been beaten by thugs and
these thugs were joined by the
policemen attached to someone who
wants to be a governor of my state.
We shall wait to see.”

Ibineneye also said that he was
shoved and beaten, but warned that
the PDP in the state would soon
explode, adding that what happened
in Abuja would have been a child’s
play if the meeting had held in the
state.

He said that out of 22 people who
brought petitions to the committee,
only four people were allowed
inside.

Another aggrieved member, who was
also harassed and sent out through
the gate of the building, Sara-Igbe
insisted that there was no way
another Ikwerre person would
succeed the current governor of the
state, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi.

Sara-Igbe, who is from Aku-Toru
Local Government Area of the state,
said, “They are violating the party’s
constitution in the state because the
party recognises zoning of offices in
the state and everywhere.

“I’m a foundation member of the
party in the state. These people
went through the back door and
brought a two-man executive. Since
these two men came, they have
been violating the party’s
constitution. The party should listen
to us or the party would fail in the
state.”