2023: Group Plans Solidarity March For Atiku, Okowa In Rivers

A political pressure group supporting the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Rivers State, the National Mandate Group (NMG), has said that it will organise a solidarity march in Port Harcourt, the State capital, in support of the party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, and his running mate, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa.

NMG national coordinator, Senator Lee Maeba, who disclosed this on Friday while speaking during the launching of pro-Atiku campaign T-shirts in Port Harcourt, however, did not disclose the date for the solidarity march.

Insisting that campaign rallies hardly attract votes, Maeba said the organization would not want a situation where its members would be attacked while attending rallies in the State.

He said: “Rallies do not bring votes now. We resolved that the modus operandi of the National Mandate Group is to go to the units and fish the voters.

“What we shall do is to stage a solidarity march across the streets of Port Harcourt for Atiku and Okowa and so many people will join us.”

The former lawmaker described the NMG as the largest support group for tbe Atiku/Okowa campaign, saying that the group has its presence in all the 774 local government areas of the country.

Maeba added: “With me, with you, we can make it happen here. The National Mandate Group as all of you know was approved on June 15, 2022 by the BoT, that we should endorse Atiku Abubakar.

“On July 20, all the state coordinators attended the inauguration in Abuja. Since then, we have been working but the good news is that the National Mandate Group, as we speak today, is the biggest and largest support group for the Atiku/Okowa campaign.

“We have in all the 774 local government areas, full executives; either in APC-controlled States or PDP-controlled States. It is working. In all the wards around the country, we have the executives working.

“In all the polling units across the country, we have at least eight canvassers in every voting unit. So, nobody jokes with the National Mandate Group.

“Yes, everyone of you have been working, the coordinators both in the State and the local governments have been spending their money. Atiku is the man who the job fits and that is the man who the job wants.”