Governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State, Tonye Cole, has said the party and its candidates will hold campaign rallies in all the 23 local government areas of the State, despite the Executive Order 21 recently signed by Governor Nyesom Ezenwo Wike.
He described as obnoxious, the Executive Order 21, which which prohibits the use of public schools, built with taxpayers money of Rivers people, for political parties’ event without the prior approval of the State Ministry of Education.
Cole, in a statement made available to LEADERSHIP in Port Harcourt by the spokesman of the Tonye Cole Campaign Organization, Sogbeye Eli, said the law was an attempt by Wike to stifle opposition in the State.
The statement reads in part: “For a man with such a notorious aversion for civil engagements, we know that it will be easier for the camel to pass through the eye of the needle, than for the opposition parties to secure approvals from Wike’s appointees and cheerleaders.
“For the records, we want to state without equivocation, that this law by the governor is not only obnoxious but the desperate acts of a coward, who is permanently at war with democracy, made with the aim of oppressing and silencing opposition parties in the state. We are therefore calling on all men of goodwill and Rivers people- wherever they may be, to condemn this tyrannical effusions of a despot with a morbid fear of life out of power.
“The Chairmen of the 23 Local Government Councils in the State who have been directed by the Governor to enforce his punitive and draconian directive under Executive Order 21 are hereby put on notice that the All Progressives Congress shall campaign with our candidates across the length and breadth of Rivers State as provided under the Constitution and as prescribed by law.
“We will neither succumb to intimidation nor accept the presentation of a fait accompli by Executive Order 21 to political parties other than the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on which platform they and the Governor were elected in the first place.”
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