Nyesom Wike Takes On Amaechi Again Over PDP's Property

The Supervising Minister of Education, Chief Nyesom Wike and Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State are locked in a fresh battle over the order issued by the state government to the local chapter of the PDP to quit its Port Harcourt secretariat, forthwith.

Wike, who is the arrowhead of the PDP opposition to the governor vowed on Friday night that the party would not obey the order to quit the Aba Road building, in Port Harcourt.

The Governor recently defected from the PDP to the APC along with his supporters, citing undemocratic practices in his former party.

The property belongs to the state government.

Speaking in Port Harcourt, Wike said the governor’s directive was in vain as the PDP would not obey it.

The PDP, he added, would continue to occupy the building until the 2015 election and even beyond.

He said the order was another evidence of the governor’s arbitrariness.

This attitude, he claimed, has made it difficult for the state legislature and judiciary to function.

The minister spoke on the occasion of the conferment of the award of Man of the Year on him by National Network newspaper.

The media outfit’s anniversary, which had as theme: “X-Raying the Nigerian Democratic Process: The Rivers State Experience,” was chaired by Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs and attended by a former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Chief Austin Opara and the new Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Dr. Henry Ogiri, among other eminent personalities.

However, an ally of the governor, George Ukwuoma-Nwogba, dismissed Wike as the real dictator, who has been acting with impunity.

The minister, he said, schemed out Chief Godspower Ake from his position as PDP chairman in Rivers State, using the instrumentality of the court.

Ukwuoma-Nwogba, who is the Publicity Secretary of the Ake-led faction of the PDP, said the truth would prevail and the NGF chairman would soon be vindicated, not minding the gang-up against him.