As part of his game plan to destabilize the Atiku Abubakar presidential ambition, Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State on Friday sealed off the Atiku/Okowa Presidential Campaign Office situated within the GRA axis of Port Harcourt, the state capital.
The latest onslaught by Wike against the Atiku/Okowa presidential campaign was said to be based on the Executive Orders 21 and 22 which he signed into law.
This was as it was gathered that Wike is getting so uncomfortable with the level of mobilization and growing popularity of the Atiku/Okowa Campaign Council in Rivers State in spite of every attempt he has made to diminish it through all sorts of political antics and intimidation.
The supporters of Atiku in Rivers state, it was gathered were those that assisted Wike to get elected as governor of the State in 2025 and 2019 and understand his style of politics too well thus desired to pull the rug off his feet in the 2023 presidential election in spite of his boast to prove to him that Rivers State does not belong to him neither is it his personal property.
The Atiku/Okowa presidential campaign was sealed off for allegedly producing noisy political activities in residential areas without approval from the State government.
However, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Presidential Campaign Council in Rivers State said it wrote an application seeking approval to use the office premise for its political activities but the application was ignored for months to pave way for the sealing off of the premises on Friday.
Commenting on the development, the media team of the Rivers State’s PDP Presidential Campaign Council (PCC), described the sealing off of the office as anti-democratic and a clear violation of free expression.
It said; “The public is hereby informed that the sealed premises had no bill board or poster, since the approval had not been given. Yet, it was sealed off, a sign that the delay in the approval is premeditated and computed to cause this sort of unlawfulness.
“We condemn this act because it rubs off on our fundamental right to free expression of interest. Furthermore, this egregious move by the Rivers State Government, seen in the prism of politics, tends to militarise our democracy and renders our dear state politically recessive when juxtaposed with other states in the country,” it stated.
The media team advised the leaders of the party in the state to seek legal redress per the provisions of the constitution, saying; “We urge our dear leaders in the state to challenge this illegality in a court of competent jurisdiction so that friction can disappear from our political space.
“The right to campaign for preferred candidate is enshrined in the Constitution of Nigeria, which is the grand norm from which every other law derives its power.
“Thus, every clash between the Constitution and any other made law should be resolved in favour of the Constitution. The Rivers State Government, we dare say, is subject to the provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as Amended).
“Meanwhile, we charge the Rivers State PDP PCC, our dear leaders, to see to it that this unlawful disruption of campaign activities does not rattle their cage. They must continue to function as they always had prior to the existence of the Secretariat,” it said.
