Politics
GOVERNOR Nyesom Wike of River State has invited members of opposition political parties to inaugurate projects in the oil-rich South-South state.
Members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Labour Party (LP) were invited to the Fourth Quarter 2022 Project Commissioning in Rivers.
The week-long programme commenced on Monday, November 14, and would end on Friday, November 18, 2022.
Wike, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), invited President Muhammadu Buhari and former Edo State Governor, Adams Oshiomhole – both of the APC.
Also, LP’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi; and Emir of Kano, HRH Aminu Ado Bayero made the list.
The monarch is scheduled to inaugurate the Dr Peter Odili Cancer and Cardiovascular Disease Diagnostic and Treatment Centre in the Obio-Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers on Monday.
Oshiomhole is planned to commission the Rumuepirikom Flyover in Obio-Akpor on Wednesday while Obi will inaugurate the Nkpolu-Oroworokwo Flyover on Thursday in Port Harcourt, the state capital.
Also, Buhari will commission the Nabo Graham Douglas Campus, Nigerian Law School, in Obio/Akpor on Friday.
This is not the first time Wike invited opposition party stalwarts to commission projects in Rivers. In August, the Rivers governor invited his Lagos counterpart, Babajide Sanwo-Olu to inaugurate the Orochiri-Worukwo (Waterline Junction) flyover in Port Harcourt.
Similarly, in October, Wike honoured an invite by the Lagos State Government to a women’s conference. At the event, the two-term Rivers governor endorsed APC’s Sanwo-Olu for second term, an action that riled PDP governorship candidate in Lagos, Olajide Adediran better known as Jandor.
For months, Wike and four other PDP governors known as the G5 have demanded the resignation of Iyorchia Ayu, saying northerners should not be the PDP national chairman and presidential candidate.
However, Ayu, a Benue indigene, has insisted that he won’t step down till the end of his four-year tenure, even as the G5 made his resignation a precondition to support Adamawa-born Atiku Abubakar’s 2023 presidential ambition.
While Wike and his allies have not been seen to campaign for Atiku, it is not clear whether they will support APC’s Bola Tinubu or Obi in the contest for Aso Rock’s top job which has been described by analysts and keen observers as a three-horse race.
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Tags: Aminu Ado Bayero Labour Party Nyesom Wike Peter Obi Peter Odili
