A former National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Prince Uche Secondus, has said it will be difficult for an individual to impose a presidential candidate on the people of Rivers State.
He said the people of the state had always voted for the PDP and they were too sophisticated to be coerced into voting for any unfamiliar political party in the forthcoming presidential election.
Secondus was reacting to a statement by the state governor, Nyesom Wike, who said on Thursday that he would in January reveal his presidential candidate in the February 25, 2023 election. While campaigning for the PDP governorship candidate, he had said in November that he would soon tell the people of the state the presidential candidate to vote for.
Wike and some disgruntled members of the party who formed the Integrity Group have been at loggerheads with the party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, and the national chairman, Iyorchia Ayu. They insisted that they would only work for the party in the presidential election if Ayu steps down for a southerner. They also insisted that power should return to the South in 2023.
The members of the group include four other aggrieved governors: Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, Samuel Ortom of Benue State, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State, and Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State; a former National Vice Chairman (South) of the party, Chief Olabode George; former governors Donald Duke, Jonah Jang, Ayo Fayose, Olusegun Mimiko, and several others.