The planned campaign gathering for the party's presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, in Port Harcourt was canceled, according to the Rivers State Peoples Democratic Party Presidential Campaign Council, in order to prevent fatalities.
During a Monday press conference in Port Harcourt, Senator Lee Maeba, the chairman of the PDP PCC in Rivers State, provided the justification.
Maeba recalled that over the previous three months, there had been a number of attacks in the state against PDP members and Atiku supporters.
Additionally, he asserted that the Rivers State Government had closed the businesses of important party figures who had backed the presidential candidate's campaign.
He said, “On December 14, 2022, one Rhino Owhohaire, the Youth Director, Atiku/Okowa Campaign Council, was shot in his village of Alu in the Ikwerre Local Government Area, and the incident was reported to the police high command, but nothing happened.
“Even when a suspect was arrested, the government of Rivers State, as an interested accomplice, went and took him on bail.
“On February 5, 2023, 31 members of the Atiku Support Group were arrested at their meeting venue at the GRA, Port Harcourt, arraigned and remanded at the correctional centre in Port Harcourt on trumped-up charges of unlawful assembly, conspiracy, and cultism.
"In light of the above submission, we, the state Campaign Council, in total constructive engagement with the National Presidential Campaign Council, the candidate, and the party, believe that no loss of human life can be tolerated or accepted before, during, or after the rally and have agreed with our principals on the need to shelve and/or cancel the rally to avoid any deaths.”
©Standard Gazette, 2021. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s publisher is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Standard Gazette with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.