PDP has failed Rivers people, Fubara says

Governor Siminalayi Fubara took aim at the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Thursday, saying the party’s leadership has failed to effectively serve the people of Rivers State.

He accused the party leadership of reneging on their duties and failing to provide effective leadership since the political crisis began.

During a courtesy visit to Government House in Port Harcourt on Wednesday, Governor Fubara made these statements while receiving a delegation from the Senate Committee on Privatisation and Commercialisation, led by Chairman Senator Orji Uzo Kalu.

Fubara said the state was currently relying on what it could do based on truth instead of party politics, adding that the state would no longer be held back by party affiliation, but would instead stand firm on its own soil to defend democracy.

Fubara said, “In our state today, we are no longer doing party. We are doing a movement, so you don’t blame me if I don’t go to the side of the party too much.

“The party has failed us here, so what we are doing here is to stand with our two legs on the soil of Rivers State, so that we can defend democracy.”

In April, 60 PDP lawmakers in the House of Representatives demanded the resignation of the party’s acting National Chairman, Umar Damagum, for failing to address the political crisis in Rivers between Fubara and his estranged godfather, Nyesom Wike.

The 60 lawmakers led by the PDP member representing Ideato North/Ideato South Federal Constituency, Imo State, Ikenga Ugochinyere, accused Damagum, of, among others, siding with Wike and working for the All Progressives Congress, a party that gave Wike the FCT ministerial appointment.

Speaking on their behalf, Ugochinyere said, “Have Nigerians wondered why Damagun kept quiet while 27 members of Rivers State House of Assembly elected on the platform of PDP left the party? He kept quiet while they were threatening to impeach a governor in his party. Nigerians will be shocked to hear that Damagun was consulted and is fully aware of the entire details of the plots to impeach the Rivers State Governor, and he gave his approval to the plot, yet he refers to himself as a chairman of a party. The shamelessness in this entire episode is limitless.”

Meanwhile, Senator Kalu, said he would meet with President Bola Tinubu to help resolve the political crisis in Rivers State.

Senator, a former Governor of Abia State, also promised to meet with Wike over the matter.

Kalu said, “I want to plead with you to abide by the rules of the land. I plead with you to abide by what the construction says.

“A few of us here have very good access to President Bola Tinubu and we are also going to please with him seriously to see how he can shorten everything happening here.

“We will also find time to go and speak to former Governor Nyesom Wike as I will speak to President Tinubu. So please, Your Excellency, you look like a very peaceful man.

“ Your face shows a very peaceful man. There is nothing like peace. Let people who are eating with this problem stop eating with it. “