A prominent South-South leader, Chief Edwin Clark, has taken a swipe at the National chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress, (APC), Abdullahi Ganduje and the Acting National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP), Umar Damagum, accusing them of planning with the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, (FCT), Nyesom Wike, to sabotage the elected government of Rivers State and the governor, Siminalayi Fubara.
The Ijaw leader has called on both the National Working Committee (NWC) and the National Executive Committee (NEC) of their Parties and stakeholders to call Ganduje and Damagum to order.
In a letter dated May 20, 2024, addressed to both Chairmen of the APC and PDP, the leader of the Pan Niger Delta Forum urged them to call Wike to order against the backdrop that he is ‘dancing naked in the open market’, in the politics of what he described as madness in Rivers State, with one leg each in the two parties.
Clark asked why Ganduje has chosen to deal with a caretaker Committee of APC that is loyal to the former Rivers State Governor, knowing full well that there are existing elected executives and pushing it behind the background.
According to him, the support given to Wike by both party chairmen has made him courageous enough to intimidate and anger the Rivers State Governor and the government, stressing that this is seen as an act to overthrow the duly elected Governor, which is criminal.
Clark, therefore, appealed to both chairmen in the interest of peace and stability in Nigeria to disassociate themselves from what he termed, the diabolical and mischievous plan by Wike for no just cause to bring down the government of his successor, Governor Fubara, adding that they should retrace their steps and take charge of their political parties in Rivers State and not leaving it for Wike, who is neither PDP nor APC.
He also lampooned Ganduje and Damagum, accusing them of deliberately breaching two important sections of their party Constitution, which says that when a position is vacant in the NWC, the replacement should come from the same zone of the person who left the office, but both of them are from the North-West, whereas the former National Chairman, Abdullahi Adamu and Iyorchia Ayu are from the North-Central, adding that like their godfather, they do not believe in law and order, but confusion.
