Rivers Crisis: Fubara Sets to Shock PDP as Loyalists Accuse Party of Taking Sides

By Akinjide Aina, Abuja Bureau Chief

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, may have fatally shot itself on the leg playing the ostrich in the Rivers political crisis to placate the FCT Minister and immediate past Governor of the State, Nyesom Wike, at the expense of the incumbent Governor, Siminalayi Fubura.

Wike who is, also, believed to hold the levers of influence and authority in the Rivers APC has allegedly pocketed the PDP NWC, leaving Fubara an orphan.

Tired of the rejection and humiliation he is receiving from his party, Governor Fubara, insiders in the Rivers State Government confided inThe source, will soon take a drastic action that will shock the Party.

Said a loyalist of Govenor Fubara who preferred anonymity “because oga( the Governor) has asked us to speak less:  “Unless the party retracts its steps and do the right thing, it will regret its treacherous ambivalence in the the political crisis rocking our state, crisis that was brought upon us by one man’s greed and proxy tenure elongation gambit; one man who wants to be the undisputed political godfather of Rivers state even when he is no longer governor, forgetting that Rivers is not Lagos.

“For its deceitful ambivalence and deceitful tongue in cheek, insipid position on Rivers, the PDP will soon bite the dust in our state. The PDP will be shocked”

Determined to assert himself and stamp political authority on the polity, Governor Fubara is said to be bidding for time before making a far-reaching political move that would shake Rivers political landscape.

An aggrieved PDP chieftain in the State who pleaded not to be named because of the tensed political situation in the  likened the National Leadership of PDP’s lack of support for Fubara and levity with which it has treated the Rivers political crisis to a child whose parents treat like an orphan.

“This is not how to be a Party. The PDP under this current NWC is an extension of APC, this current PDP has tragically become Wike’s play thing. Ambassador Umar Damagum ( PDP acting National Chairman) and his gang,  careful not to offend Wike who still wields enormous influence and control over past and incumbent PDP governor, past and sitting National Assembly members and the National Working Committee, NWC has refrained from openly coming out in support of Fubara despite his (Wike’s) anti- PDP activities and his open implementation of the APC agenda in Rivers state.

“Damagum’s PDP has reduced itself to a party of periodic issuance of half-hearted, banal press releases. Its position on the Rivers crisis are hazy, the party is too weak and afraid to take a definite position on Rivers. Damagum and his group of “O yes”  men are afraid to call out Wike, they can’t even mention Fubara by name or refer to him as Governor in order not to get Wike offended.

“PDP of the old would have since gathered its Governors, National Assembly members and its chieftains and paid a solidarity to the Governor but the PDP under Damagum is in someone’s pocket, it will never do so but a shocker awaits the party soon”.

Meanwhile, highly placed sources told the magazine that Fubara is waiting for the court to finally determine the status of the 25 pro- Wike defected members of the state House of Assembly before making his move. “If in the coming days the court rule that the lawmakers who last year defected to the APC have lost their seats and therefore no longer members of the House, Governor Fubara will immediately announce his new party and thus present his own candidates from his new party  for the subsequent by- election to fill the vacant Assembly seats”, the source told The Source.

While the majority of the Governor’s loyalists are pilling pressure on him to dump the PDP and pinch his tent with the Labour party, others insist the Social Democratic Party, SDP or the Accord Party present better opportunity to him.

However, are those who, while completely ruling out the APC “because of  the toxic Wike factor in the Rivers chapter of the party”,  insist that the Governor should remain in the PDP and use the forthcoming Congresses to wrestle the control of Rivers chapter of the party from Wike.