Politics

Many ‘Abuja politicians’ will be retired in 2023 – Wike

Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike has said the 2023 election will be a game changer that would retire many politicians.

He said certain politicians in Rivers state fall into the category of those who will lose out next year.

Wike made the comment while commissioning of the Rumukurishi flyover in Port Harcourt on Thursday, December 22, 2022.

The Governor said that politicians who stay in Abuja to make promises to their people and dictate how supporters vote will find out who the people really listen to.

Wike, who said the forthcoming election will determine those who influence voters in the state, added that whoever loses at the polls in Rivers state will leave honourably whether it is the PDP or opposition.

He said; “2023 will confirm to us those that have an influence on voters. Those that their people will listen to and vote.

“It is not only for you to be in Abuja and tell them whatever you’re telling them, come home because our Polling boots are not going to be in Abuja. This election will retire people in 2023. If they win us we will go, if we win them they will go. In fact they have already gone”.

Meanwhile, the Inspector-General of Police, Usman Alkali Baba, has said politicians who failed to clinch tickets at their party primaries are behind the recent attacks on the offices of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) across the country.

The police chief stated this on Friday through his representative, the Deputy Inspector-General, Department of Operations, Dandaura Mustapha, who appeared before the House of Representatives ad hoc committee investigating attacks on INEC assets.

He said the failed politicians who could not come back under any party were hell-bent on destroying the electoral process.

Baba said; “The campaigns commenced and what we realised initially was inter and intra-party disputes. We realised that members of political parties were destroying billboards, posters and campaign offices in some parts of the states. We quickly alerted the commissioners of police in charge of the commands and gave them a clear directive that it is the right of every political party to go to all the nooks and crannies of society and campaign. It is a constitutional right, so on no account does a state governor or any state actor should prevent political parties from moving about to do their campaigns.

“We now come to the immediate attacks on INEC facilities. Of recent, the ones that took place in Osun and Ogun, then last week in Ebonyi, Imo and Enugu; it is a well known fact that in the South-East geopolitical zone, we have issues of secessionists – the IPOB and ESN. These groups are bent on stopping elections from taking place in the South-East.”