As the nation moves closer to the 2023 general elections, Nyesom Wike, Governor of Rivers, has threatened to cancel any approval given to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential campaign to use Adokiye Amiesimaka Stadium, if any attempt is made to access the venue outside the approved hours.
The governor said the facility can only be accessed two days before the proposed rally, adding that members of the PDP campaign council did not have the right over the venue outside the approved hours.
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This development comes amid a crisis in the PDP over the position taken by stakeholders, including five governors, led by Governor Wike.
Wike and his allies have excluded themselves from the party’s presidential campaign over calls for Iyorchia Ayu to step down as its national chairman.
The calls for Ayu’s resignation, according to the PDP stakeholders, were based on the grounds that the PDP presidential candidate and the national chairman cannot be from the same region.
Speaking on Friday at a campaign rally in Oyigbo LGA, Wike specifically warned Abiye Sekibo, the Director General of the presidential campaign in the state, not to force his way into the stadium days before the rally.
“Let me also use this opportunity to warn Abiye Sekibo, we have made approval for your presidential candidate to use Adokiye Amiesimaka Stadium, on February 11th. You have no right to begin to go to the stadium now. We cannot give you access to the stadium now. We can only give you access to the stadium two days before the occasion for you to prepare,” he said.
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“Nobody gave you one month. So, if you dare it again, to go and force yourself into the stadium, I will cancel the approval with immediate effect. Dare it again, I will cancel it. Heaven will not fall. In fact, if heaven falls now, we will be happy that it was in our time heaven came down,” Wike added.