Leave Nyesom Wike Alone, PDP tells APC

The leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party in Rivers State has told the All Progressive Congress to leave the Supervising Minister of Education, Chief Nyesom Wike, alone and stop prying into his private affairs. The state PDP said it was wrong for the APC to criticise every action of the minister, who is the leader of the party in Rivers State. Reacting to the state APC’s condemnation of Wike’s visit to a former Niger Delta militant leader, Chief Solomon Ndigbara, the State Chairman of the PDP, Mr. Felix Obuah, said the minister was permitted to visit members of the PDP in a bid to build a virile and united political party. It will be recalled that the APC in Rivers State had flayed the visit of the minister to Ndigbara in Gokana Local Government Area of the state at a time the world was calling for the release of over 200 schoolgirls kidnapped by members of the Boko Haram sect. The APC argued that rather than embark on political meetings with ex-warlords, the minster was expected to have joined the global efforts towards the release of the abducted Chibok schoolgirls. The state APC called on Wike’s “masters and friends” to plead with him to concentrate on the international effort targeted at ensuring that the kidnapped schoolgirls were released. Obuah in a statement on Monday by his Special Adviser on Media, Mr. Jerry Needam, said, ”The PDP in Rivers State notes that the violation of one’s privacy has always been the handiwork of idlers, which the APC politicians symbolise. “Rather than pry into our private matters, the APC should do well by looking inwards and devising ways to save its sinking boat and battered image arising from its failed congresses.” Calling on the minister not to be deterred by the criticism from the APC, Obuah appealed to the people of the state not to give in to APC’s antics. Earlier, the State Assistant Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Mr. Samuel Nwanosike, explained that there was nothing wrong in Wike’s visit to PDP members in Gokana Local Government Area, adding that the minister cannot be barred from entering the state. “It is unfortunate that the APC in Rivers State has lost focus on what party politics is all about. The minister went to Gokana to visit PDP members and Gokana is where the former militant leader comes from,” Nwanosike said.