The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State has refused engagement from the visit of President-Elect Bola Tinubu to the state on Wednesday, 3rd May.
Tinubu, who won the 25 February presidential election under the APC platform, is paying a two-day visit to the state to commission a flyover and a court complex constructed by Governor Wike’s administration. To honour the visit, Wike had declared Wednesday as a public holiday in Rivers, urging the people of the state to come out massively to welcome Tinubu.
However, Darlington Nwauju, state spokesman of APC, explained that the party has no involvement in the visit, claiming Wike privately invited the President-elect.
He said in a statement: “We challenge the Governor being an outgoing governor (Mr Wike) to play less divisive politics and exercise restraint in planting seeds of discord amongst opposition political parties.
“We are aware that the governor has been working so hard to paint a false perception of the collapse of the APC structure in Rivers State even when he had in previous well-documented interviews vowed never to have anything to do with a “cancer party (APC).”
Wike had earlier bragged when Tinubu visited him in Rivers Government House during the presidential campaign period that no it would be a waste to invest in APC candidates. However, the PDP governor later supported Tinubu in his presidential campaign after having a strong disagreement with the Presidential candidate of his party, Atiku Abubakar.
Nwauju said APC was aware of “Governor Wike’s plot to prank our President-elect into believing his false narrative that there is no other opposition political party existing in Rivers State,” adding that the people of the state “already know this is not the correct situation on the ground.”
He added that the party is “focused on pursuing justice by challenging the outcome of the flawed 18 March elections at the Elections Petitions Tribunal and cannot be distracted by the antics of Gov. Wike and his co-travellers.”
