Workers take over Yola streets to receive Wike

Presidential hopeful vows to tackle insecurity

Business activities and offices in Yola were yesterday shut, as Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential aspirant, Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State visited the state.

Yola is the capital of Adamawa, the home state of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, who is also gunning for PDP’s presidential ticket for next year’s ballot.

Wike said he was in the state to solicit the votes of Adamawa delegates, saying he is the only aspirant with the capacity to sack the incumbent All Progressives Congress (APC) government.

He told the delegates not to vote based on regional or religious sentiment because poverty and hunger do not discriminate.

“If you make mistake again and we lose the 2023 election, PDP is finished. This is our last chance to reclaim our mandate. I have the capacity to recapture our mandate. Just give me the ticket and you will see how I can win the election,” he boasted.

However, there was a heavy protest at the venue of the occasion in Government House against the state chairman of PDP, Abubakar Shehu.

Trouble started when Shehu told Wike that Adamawa delegates were not for him, but that Wike was in the state to canvass votes for Atiku. This led to a shouting game from the delegates.

Government House source informed The Guardian that the PDP executives would meet today to take disciplinary actions against the state chairman over the comments they viewed as a direct attack on Wike.

IN Jalingo, Taraba State, Wike said the security challenges in the country would be history if given the mandate to preside over the country’s affairs.

While addressing PDP delegates and stalwarts in Taraba ahead of the party’s presidential primary, Wike stressed that he would have resigned “if I were President Muhammadu Buhari,” as anybody that could not protect life and property “has no business in government.”

Affirming that no part of Nigeria is secure today, even Buhari’s Katsina State, the Rivers governor said he would have taken the battle to the bandits, and made them flee at the mention of his name.

Reiterating his determination to face the security challenges headlong, if, given the opportunity, he lamented: “Each time there is a bomb blast or killing, you will hear breaking news that Buhari is meeting with service chiefs. That is wrong.”

The breaking news Nigerians want to hear is that bandits have been eliminated. Buhari should lead from the front by being the service chief himself.”

Aligning with Governor Darius Ishaku of Taraba, who has been agitating for state police, Wike said state police “is imperative to tackling insecurity. It is only those who understand the terrain of a place that can effectively police the area.”

Ishaku, on his part, admonished the PDP delegates to use their votes wisely by queuing behind candidates with the capacity to bring the much-desired dividends of democracy to their people.