Niger Delta Proffessionals Forum(NDPF) has described the news circulating about the alleged rejection of the Vice Presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi as false and malicious.
In a statement released in Port Harcourt Rivers State, the Director of Planning and Research of NDPF, Prince Tamunotonye Pepple expressed disgust at the level of desperation of mushroom organizations allegedly sponsored by the Minister of Federal Capital Territory, Mr. Nyesom Wike.
“It is laughable that many politicians in Rivers State have become jittery at the emergence of Amaechi as ADC’s VP candidate. I can tell you authoritatively that there is no group like the Southern Political Progressives Amalgamation Forum. That is a fake organisation that exists only in the ferid imagination of Wike’s cheerleaders. We know why they are angry. They pleaded and bribed everyone in this country to get nominated as Vice Presidential candidate in the last election and failed woefully. Senator Dino Melaye was one of the persons who they tried to recruit to beg on their behalf. Today another person has got it purely on merit. Rather than celebrate his emergence and acknowledge his leadership credentials, they are busy sponsoring faceless organisations to carry out baseless smear campaigns against him. Everyone in the Niger Delta knows that Nyesom Wike is not popular in Rivers state. He pays money in exchange of anything he gets. His strength is in rigging and violence. If anyone holds a free and fair elections in Rivers State today, Wike and his cohorts will not win a single LGA. “
As 2027 elections approach, there is palpable fear that voters from the northern part of the country will outrightly reject President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his party the All Progressives Congress (APC). The signs are becoming very clear. Both former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and Former Governor Amaechi remain very popular in the north and will likely get the majority of the votes cast in that area diminishing the chances of President Tinubu whose victory in 2023 came as a result of support from that region.
The dwindling support base for Tinubu in the north remains a major cause of concern for his supporters like Wike who understand the power of numbers in the forthcoming Presidential election. With defeat looming, key supporters of the President have become desperate and are now planning to ensure maximum rigging in the south to be able to get alternative numbers. It also believed that key members of the judiciary have been approached to ensure that they will cooperate to alter the results through the court.
However whether they will succeed or not remains a matter of speculation.
NDPF is a non-profit organization that promotes the welfare and professional development of young people from the Niger Delta across the country.