Ijaw People’s Development Initiative (IPDI) Worldwide, on behalf of the IJaws in Rivers State has threatened to dump the incumbent state governor, Nyesom Wike, in the 2019 elections.
They are pledging allegiance for Tonye Cole, the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate.
The IPDI National President, Austin Ozobo, in a statement on Saturday, said the ethnic group in Rivers State would prefer an Ijaw candidate irrespective of party affiliation.
The statement read: “We have been supporting the upland since democracy in 1999. But, they never deemed it fit to consider the riverine communities. We have done more than enough to protect the upland interest and they are not grateful.
“For that reason, we have decided not to support any upland interest to the detriment of our riverine communities for now.”
Ozobo contended that Ijaws in Rivers had been the determining factor in the State’s politics over the years, lamenting that the ethnic group had been politically divided by the upland hegemony in the state.
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The Ijaw leader stressed: “We no longer know our left and right. There is no meaningful development in the riverine communities in the state and we are not comfortable with it. We are in a state of political mayhem and comatose.”
According to him, Cole’s candidacy is one of the rare privileges they cannot afford to miss. “Ijaws in the state have been seeking for such opportunity since democracy in 1999. We must seize this opportunity and maximise it to liberate Rivers Ijaws.
“It is so sad that despite the fact that the current deputy governor of Rivers State is an Ijaw woman, she is not heard. She has been caged by Wike. What is now the interest of Ijaw, which Wike is protecting?
“Ijaw massive support made Wike to be who he is. Do you know that Ijaws have the highest voting strength in rivers state among other tribes? Yet, we are being abandoned development wise.
“Let us push for Tonye Cole. Whatever the case may be, we should always form the habit of looking inwards as Ijaw people,” Ozobo said.
