….Warns PDP against changing delegates list
The Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike has said that former Senator Dino Melaye is not a strong material that can win the governorship election for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Kogi State.
He expressed his fears about the possibility of PDP losing the Kogi State governorship election if Dino takes the ticket and advised the national leadership of the party not to consider the former lawmaker.
Wike disclosed that the acting national chairman of the PDP, Umar Ililya Damagum recently called him and expressed concern about attempts to manipulate the Kogi State governorship primary in favour of senator Dino Melaye.
He said, “Changing delegates list to favour a particular person will further cause a crisis in our party. Giving PDP governorship ticket in Kogi State to Dino Melaye is like planning to fail the election, because Dino doesn’t have what it takes to become governor of Kogi State.
“Tomorrow you begin to cry that you were rigged, but you’re already rigging yourself by changing the delegates list to favour someone who cannot win the election.”
On the ongoing protest by the PDP at the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) office in Port Harcourt, Wike justified that the action was aimed at preventing the manipulation of the results of the March 18, 2023 governorship and House of Assembly elections.
Wike maintained that since the law allows political parties to access electoral materials INEC used in conducting the elections, the PDP in the State as a precautionary measure, is insisting on every party having access to the documents at the same time.
The Governor spoke during a media chat in Port Harcourt on Tuesday, and explained that PDP was simply being proactive to prevent a recurrence of malicious altering of the will expressed by Rivers people at the polls in 2015 by the police and the All Progressives Congress (APC).
“There is nothing that is abnormal about what you think is going on in Port Harcourt. What PDP is doing is just to be vigilant. Vigilant in the sense that precisely after the 2015 election, inauguration, we had problems that we never believed, and so we didn’t want a recurrence of that at the tribunal.
“It shocked us when we were in the tribunal that the police tendered the original result, not a copy of the original result, and everybody was shocked. How would police tender the original result and INEC had their own original certified true copy? INEC tendered their own, to our greatest surprise, the court accepted the police original result. It was surprising to us.”
Governor Wike, said the PDP is being extra vigilant because the APC in Rivers State has a penchant to compromise security agents and some officials of INEC. According to him, the PDP is still astounded on how police procured original copies of INEC result sheets in 2016.
“Police brought the original result sheet. It is unbelievable. The court accepted the police’ other than INEC. APC in Rivers State paid police. What we expected is that the police should have a copy of the INEC result. And how did they get the original result sheet with the same serial number?”
Governor Wike explained that the PDP doesn’t trust INEC sufficiently and will want to be present when the All Progressives Congress (APC) is granted access to all electoral materials used in the conduct of the 2023 governorship and House of Assembly elections.
“We are being extra-vigilant because we know what our opponents are capable of doing. All the plans, all the results they have printed to tender before the tribunal, we have it
“You are dealing with criminals and you must be extra vigilant. People can go to any length to procure documents and you will be shocked at what you will see in the tribunal,” he said.
