Rivers governorship: SDP denies endorsing Wike

The Social Democratic Party (SDP) in Rivers State on Wednesday denied endorsing the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Governor Nyesom Wike.
It said that the party could not endorse any governorship candidate from any other party in the state.
Mr Joshua Nwolu, the State Chairman of SDP, said in Port Harcourt that he was not part of any endorsement of Wike by some political parties in the state.
Nwolu made the party’s position known in reaction to the report that some political parties had endorsed the candidate of the PDP for the March 2 governorship election in the state.
“If party chairmen have endorsed any candidate for the upcoming general election in the state, I am not aware and if I am not aware, SDP is also not aware.
“I was not invited to the meeting where such decision was taken. As a matter of fact, SDP has structures all over the state and has candidates at all levels of the election.
“We cannot accept any endorsement from anybody in SDP in favour of any party in the state, so SDP has not signed or endorsed anybody from any party,” nwolu said.
Mr Adol Ibeka, the State Publicity Secretary of the party, said: “I woke up one morning and heard on the radio that some political parties in the state have endorsed the governorship candidate of PDP; SDP is not among the parties.
“If there will be any endorsement by SDP, I am the publicity secretary of the party, I will tell the public that my party has endorsed a candidate.
“We have not endorsed anybody and SDP has a clear manifesto and our manifesto cuts across improvement of the welfare of the citizenry of Rivers people, so there is no way we can be part of such endorsement,” ibeka said.
Furthermore, Mr Somina Elekima, the Campaign Director of the party also said that SDP was not part of the parties that endorsed the PDP governorship candidate.
Elekima said that SDP could not endorse anybody because the party had a clear programme to bring community government to the people with the plan to distribute 35 per cent of the wealth to 319 wards in the state to build cottage industries.
He said that the party if elected, had plans to provide N5 billion per annum to all local government areas for establishment of industries.
“We have plans to give free emergency health treatment, free education, building of 40,000 housing units, we are thinking about bringing peace to the people by way of improving employment situation because when a young man is hungry, he faces two things, either to steal or starve.
“We know that the best way to solve insecurity problem is by providing employment; that is why we decided on rapid industrialization
“So, based on these principles there is no way we can endorse anybody than our governorship candidate, Mr Precious Elekima, who has these plans as his pipe plans and cardinal principle for the incoming government,” Somina said.