Ibekimi Oriamaja Reports.
Lee Maeba, a former senator from Rivers South-East, has accused Nyesom Wike, the governor of Rivers State, of repeatedly making fun of the state’s elders and intimidating others.
The former governor’s ally claimed in an interview with the social media-based news outlet Tracknews that Wike, who is calling for fairness, had mistreated the state’s elders and allies.
“He who seeks equity must do so with pure intentions. Wash your hands first before approaching equity, Maeba said, in apparent allusion to Wike’s complaints of marginalization during the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) primaries.
Maeba reported that the governor threatened former state governor Celestine Omehia, former deputy speaker of the house of representatives Austin Opara, and other Ikwere politicians over their visit to the PDP candidate Atiku Abubakar last Thursday.
“The governor called Omehia and Austin Opara and informed them they had no business going to visit Atiku for a meeting of that sort without first getting his permission. that he will kill himself and them, so they should be prepared. He threatened them and told them to go buy guns if they didn’t already have any, the man alleged.
Austin Okpara was already the deputy speaker when Wike was attempting to win the position of local government chairman, thus Maeba questioned the need for Opara to ask Wike’s approval before meeting Atiku.
In the lead-up to the PDP convention, he insisted that he traveled with Wike to 22 states, highlighting the fact that since he had lost the primary elections, there shouldn’t be any special considerations for him to endorse Atiku.
He was very clear when he said, “Let me see how you can support Atiku in this state. Without my consent, you are not allowed to support Atiku. Nobody in this state is permitted to work for Atiku, Maeba insisted.
He continued by saying that on Friday, Wike called a meeting with the Ogoni people and the member who represented them (Maeba), and he made it clear that he was waiting to see how Maeba would support Atiku in Rivers.
He claimed that the same Wike who is whining about being ignored had purchased gubernatorial forms for 14 of his friends, including Maeba, but had forewarned them all against running for office.
Furthermore, he emphasized that he, an aspirant, had never seen any of the delegates and that Wike had warned them all that any attempt to overthrow him would fail miserably and bring shame upon themselves.
The delegate list was not made public. He contacted me at the end of the day and informed me that I am unable to serve as governor, that I ran the Atiku campaign in 2019 without his consent, that I even created a group called Friends of Atiku, and that I had opened an office for Atiku.
He claimed that it was over as a result and that he could not turn the state over to his foe. I had never witnessed that type of humiliation in my life, and it happened in front of his employees, he continued, highlighting Wike’s emphatic advice to him not to participate in the primary elections.
Since then, he observed, Wike has made no attempt to promote reconciliation or talk about how to advance the state; instead, he is now yelling about being marginalized. What determination does Wike possess to travel and resist injustice? He asked, “What is more unjust than what he did to me?
Atiku and the PDP leadership have recently been at odds, and Wike accuses the former vice president of sending henchmen to placate him after losing the job of running mate for the presidency to Delta State Governor Ifeanyi Okowa.
Despite a recent meeting for peace between the two leaders, Wike allegedly named the removal of Iyorchia Ayu as the party’s national chairman as one of the prerequisites for a truce.
We all knew Atiku before he came. Since 1999, Austin Opara had served in the House of Representatives. When Atiku was vice president, he served as the speaker’s deputy. Wike was battling for the position of local government chairman at the time. Therefore, something is wrong if Austin Opara needs his permission to visit Atiku today, he claimed.
He insisted that no one person was in command of the votes in Rivers State and emphasized that Wike was planning to rig the South-South state’s elections.
Maeba went on to say that he recently lost his position as chairman of Elechi Amadi Polytechnic due to his friendship with Atiku, calling it a shame.
“If you forbid us from working for Atiku, that becomes the most egregious anti-party behavior. I welcome criticism. Even though we are in the thick of our campaign, you have already lined up Bola Tinubu’s guys to oversee construction in your state.
Why is he gathering Tinubu’s troops in line? They enter the building to talk after the commissioning. What are they discussing. He places the APC and Tinubu over our own candidate in the middle of our campaign. I have no idea what you call that,” he insisted.
