Chrys
The governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress
(APC) in the March 18 gubernatorial election in Rivers, Tonye Cole, has reacted
to President-elect Bola Tinubu’s visit to Rivers State in which his party was
ignored.
Cole said Governor Wike should have informed APC in Rivers
State that he was inviting Tinubu and would want them to be part of the
programme.
He disclosed this on Thursday while fielding questions on
Arise Television’s Morning Show program.
Recall that the President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, on
Wednesday visited Rivers State at the invitation of Governor Nyesom Wike.
While in Port Harcourt, Tinubu commissioned the
Rumuokwuta/Rumuola flyover in Port Harcourt while describing Wike as a man of
integrity who abandoned his interest for the nation’s interest.
Wike also declared a public holiday for people to celebrate
Tinubu over a two-day visit to the state.
But the APC in Rivers dissociated itself from the visit of
Tinubu to the state.
The APC Publicity Secretary in the State, Darlington Nwauju,
said the party has nothing to do with Tinubu’s visit.
Nwauju told Wike “to play less divisive politics and
exercise restraint in planting seeds of discord amongst opposition political
parties”.
Cole claimed he was absent during Tinubu’s visit because he
was not invited.
He said, ”I will describe the visit from two sides. First
side of it is the President-elect. As a President-elect of Nigeria, he has the
right to go anywhere. And the Rivers State Government invited him, and he has
come, honoured that invitation, and has come to Rivers State as a
President-elect; with that, we have no problem at all.
”Where the issue is is that the Governor of Rivers State,
Nyesom Wike, ought also to be the governor of all Rivers people. And one of the
things that he should have done if he is inviting the President-elect, who is
the President-elect of all Nigerians, would have been to call us as APC in
Rivers State to inform us that he is inviting the President-elect and would
want us to be part of that programme.
”We never got any invitation, I was never invited
personally, I was not invited in my private capacity as a candidate of the
party, neither was our party, APC, in the State invited to any of those things,
and I believe that is where the difference between the President-elect acting
in his capacity as President-elect for all Nigerians and Governor Wike acting
in his capacity as a governor of just a particular Rivers people. That is where
our disagreement stands.”
