The Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) of the Peoples Democratic Party in (PCC) Rivers State has cancelled its presidential rally slated for the state today, February 14, 2023.
Senator Lee Meaba, who spoke on behalf of the PCC in Port Harcourt yesterday, said the rally would no longer be held in Rivers because of security reasons.
Meaba said Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate, informed the team that he did not want any bloodshed in Rivers, hence the decision to cancel the rally.
He called on President Muhammadu Buhari to act decisively by instructing and making sure the security agencies do their job in an impartial manner that will ensure free and fair elections.
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Recall that last week, Chairman of the PDP PCC in Rivers, Dr Abiye Sekibo, was attacked in Port Harcourt and his vehicle riddled with bullets.
Sekibo had accused policemen attached to the Rivers State Government House of being behind the incident, but Governor Nyesom Wike denied it.
Wike had initially revoked the use of the Adokiye Amiesimaka Stadium as venue of the PDP campaign but he later made a U-turn, saying some persons had been sent to dialogue with him.
After the fresh approval, Dr Sekibo and his team said they were no longer interested in the stadium but preferred another venue located at the popular Trans Amadi part of Port Harcourt.
Sekibo and his supporters had on Thursday visited the new site where they went to clear the area to prepare ground for the rally. They were reportedly ambushed and chased out of the place by thugs suspected to be working for a faction of PDP that belonged to Governor Wike. Canopies and chairs brought for the rally were destroyed.
Governor Wike denied that the proposed rally venue was destroyed.
Wike and Atiku have been at loggerheads since the Rivers governor lost the presidential ticket to the former vice president.
Wike and his allies in the “Integrity Group” distanced themselves from the campaign, giving the resignation of Senator Iyioricha Ayu as the party’s national chairman as a condition for them to campaign for Atiku, but the party called their bluff.
Wike is the leader of the G-5, a group of PDP governors: Seyi Makinde (Oyo), Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia), Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Enugu) and Samuel Ortom (Benue).
