Rivers Governor Nyesom Wike has revoked the approval he granted the state chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) to use the Adokiye Amiesimaka Stadium to campaign for its Presidential Candidate Atiku Abubakar.
Wike cancelled the approval in a letter dated January 31 written by the Commissioner for Sports, Christopher Green, and addressed to Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State, who is the Director-General of PDP, Presidential Council.
The letter accused the Rivers Presidential Campaign Organisation of planning to share the use of the facility with a “faction of the All Progressives Congress (APC) led by Tonye Cole”.
The letter said: “Credible intelligence available to the government of Rivers State and recent developments now show that your Presidential Campaign Organisation is working in collaboration and in cahoot with a faction of the APC led by Tonye Patrick Cole and that it is the intention of your presidential campaign organisation to accommodate and share the approved facility for your campaign with the said faction of the APC.
“Government records show that the activities of the APC in Rivers have always been married by violence due largely to irreconcilable internal conflicts within the party including shootings and killings in the course of protest arising from the nomination process of delegates for primaries and detonation of explosives in the course of campaigns”.
“In the circumstance, the Rivers State Government has come to the painful but inevitable decision to withdraw the approval earlier given to you for the use of the stadium and the said approval is hereby withdrawn”, the letter said.
