Governor Nyesom Wike says that the people of Rivers state already know who he wants them to vote for in the presidential election on February 25, 2023. He also says that people waiting for him to say publicly who he wants them to vote for will be waiting in vain.

Wike held a campaign rally for the Rivers Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Port Harcourt on Wednesday for the Port Harcourt City Local Government Area. He also said that the Commissioner of Police, CP Okon Effiong, didn’t do enough to check on what he thought were violations by opposition parties during election campaigns in the state.

Governor Wike said that he never promised to say publicly who he would vote for as president. This was likely in response to Dakuku Peterside, the 2015 All Progressives Congress candidate for governor of Rivers, who had dared him to do so.

He said, “I never told anybody I will face cameras to announce to you this is who we will vote. I said I will tell Rivers people the candidate they will support. I did not state the method of telling it. I did not say I will hold live coverage to declare it.

“And Rivers people know already. Are you not aware? So ‘mumu’ people who never win in politics are expecting me to make a live declaration that we’re now going for Joseph (hypothetically).

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“Far from it. But you (Rivers people) are aware. Have we not said it? I’ve told people who don’t know. In G-5 we are fighting a guerilla warfare. The more you look the less you see.”

Wike warned CP Okon that he would take over his job and use Neighborhood Watch, the state’s established community policing group, against opposition parties if he thought the CP Rivers Police Command didn’t care about alleged violations by campaigns by opposition parties in the state.

He told the CP, “You are the one making them (opposition parties) to break the law. You cannot support people who are breaking the law. If you don’t do your work, we will take over your work from you. We will release our Neighborhood Watch.

“You know the truth of the matter, you are scared so they won’t transfer you. You can be transfered anywhere, any day. So you are neither here nor there. Your fear of being transfered will not save you. Do your work. Nobody should intimidate you. Tell them not to push us to the wall.”