Port Harcourt — The Movement for the Survival of Ijaw Ethnic Nationality in the Niger Delta (MOSIEND) has decried the alliance between Rivers State Governor Nyesom Ezenwo Wike and former Imo State governor, Senator Rochas Okorocha, describing it as ‘a surprise’.
This is as it warned Wike to resist the temptation of imposing a governorship candidate on the people of the state at the end of his tenure in 2023.
MOSIEND’s national secretary, Amain Winston Cottrell, in a statement made available to LEADERSHIP Weekend in Port Harcourt, said the governor’s alliance with Okorocha, who made attempts to impose his son-in-law, Uche Nwosu, on the people of Imo State in 2019, was not healthy.
Cottrell said: “We wish to draw Governor Wike’s attention to some of the concerns put forward by people of the state after his remarks on the travails of former Imo State governor, Senator Owelle Rochas Okorocha.
“Governor Wike surprised us by that singular statement. We were all witnesses to Okorocha’s desperate bid to impose his son in-law against the popular wish of the people which pitched him against the people of Imo State ahead of the 2019 Imo elections.
“This habit of anointing a successor at all costs was one of the undermining factors that worked against Okorocha, who still remains bitter that his intention to make governance in Imo State a family affair did not come to fruition. So, we are not surprised about his current travails which we believe is self induced.”
While advising the Rivers State governor to run an all inclusive government, the MOSIEND scribe enjoined Wike not to entertain any fears against imaginary or presumptuous political forces to victimize him after he leaves office on May 29, 2023.
He said the governor has nothing to worry about so long as he remained upright, prudent, transparent and unbiased in his stewardship of the state.