Rivers Governor Nyesom Wike has vowed to get rid of banditry within six months if elected President in 2023.
Wike said he had drawn the blueprint to provide the logistics and gadgets necessary for security agencies to expeditiously end banditry in the country.
Wike, who spoke at a meeting in Abeokuta with PDP delegates from Ogun State, said he would prioritise the protection of life and property of every person.
He said: “Once there is insecurity you can’t do anything. You must have peace for investors to come in, for people to set up industries. So the basic thing in my first six months as president of Nigeria is to end banditry.
“All those bandits, let them wait for me. I will pursue them. It is my job. I will provide to security agencies whatever they require.”
Wike in a statement by his Special Assistant, Media, Kelvin Ebiri, said the country yearned for a strong, courageous and fearless leader like him to resolve the ongoing security.
The Governor told the delegates that he was the only presidential aspirant that had never defected from the PDP since its formation in 1998 to another political party.
He urged the delegates to be circumspect as some of those vying for the PDP presidential ticket were among those, who aligned with the APC to defeat the party in 2015.
He said: “Today, we are suffering. We are in opposition. Who are those who plotted against us? Who are those who masterminded for us to lose the 2015 election?
“Today, we are crying that we are in opposition, today we are fighting how to take back power. Who are those people who took the power that PDP had and gave it to APC. You know them.”
Wike said he remained committed to the ideals of PDP and would never leave the party for another political party under any circumstances.
He said: “Whether I win the ticket or not, I will never leave PDP. I will support PDP, I will make sure PDP wins the election. I am not those when anything happens they run away from the party. I will not leave this party because everything I am today, it is PDP that has given it to me. So I owe PDP a lot.”
The Governor said he was not seeking the office of the president for personal aggrandisement insisting that he was willing to work for emergence of a new egalitarian, united and prosperous Nigeria.
“Nigeria has never been divided the way the country is divided today. Our founding fathers never made mistakes that there should be a country called Nigeria. God never made mistake that there should be a country called Nigeria”, he said.
Wike maintained that he remained the only person that could defeat the APC in the 2023 general election if given the PDP presidential ticket.
He said previous attempts by the APC to rig elections in Rivers State failed and would continue to fail if he emerged the PDP presidential candidate.
“Everywhere, Wike has taken over. Go to the north it’s Wike; go to the east, it’s Wike, go to the west, it’s Wike, go to the south, it’s Wike. Ogun state is Wike. Everybody, it’s Wike.”
Oyo Governor, Seyi Makinde, urged the delegates to support the Rivers Governor to actualise his presidential aspiration.
He expressed optimism that Wike would win the PDP’s ticket and the 2023 presidential election.
Source: The Nation
