A group known as Niger Delta Freedom Volunteer Force (NDFVF), has blamed Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers state for allegedly causing the defeat suffered by the presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar in the just concluded presidential election.
They also congratulated President Muhammadu Buhari at his re-election in the poll and called on Alhaji Atiku and the PDP to accept the defeat as the sincere outcome of the exercise.
They stated these in a communiqué issued at the end of emergency meeting in Port Harcourt last weekend and traced the failure to the party in the just held Presidential polls to the party’s national convention held in Port Harcourt, the state capital, last year.
The document jointly signed by the President and the Secretary of the group, Harry Lawson and Preye Wilson respectively, alleged that Governor Wike hijacked the convention and installed an incompetent leader who could not deliver victory to the party in the Presidential election.
They said, “Atiku simply lost because Wike and Secondus hijacked the party structure to themselves before the elections, former governor of Ogun state and Director General of Atiku’s presidential campaign, Otunba Gbenga Daniel was nowhere to be found close to him again. It was just impossible for PDP to have won.
“Wike and Secondus in their selfishness sold out the party in Kano state where they would have secured more votes, by insisting that former governor of the State, Rabiu Kwankwaso take fifty five percent (55%) of the state PDP exco.
“This decision infuriated another former governor of the State, Ibrahim Shekarau and forced him out of the party to join the All Progressive Congress (APC), where he delivered the state to President Muhammadu Buhari and the APC, producing the highest votes from all states in the country,” The group said.
They congratulated President Muhammadu Buhari, on his victory and urged Alhj. Atiku, the PDP and the entire South-South, to accept outcome of the February 23rd presidential election and work with the president to move Nigeria forward.
They also condemn the wild spread violence that claimed several innocent lives during the presidential and national assembly elections in South-South especially in Rivers state, and called for a peaceful and credible governorship and state assembly elections in the region come Saturday, March 23, 2019.