The Director-General of the Peoples Democratic Party Presidential Campaign Council in Rivers State, Dr. Abiye Sekibo, escaped assassination by the whiskers on Thursday midnight.
It was learnt that gunmen dressed in police uniform opened fire on Sekibo’s vehicle, a Land Cruiser bulletproof jeep at the Rainbow Town in Port Harcourt, where he went to inspect the venue of a proposed presidential rally of the party.
Confirming the incident at a news briefing Friday, Sekibo said his car was riddled with bullets and the venue of the proposed rally set on fire, while policemen watched the inferno
“As we approached the site, those policemen who were watching the inferno opened fire on our vehicle. I looked at the Hilux vehicles, they were police Hilux vehicles attached to the Governor of Rivers State.”
Meanwhile, The Director of Media and Publicity for Tinubu-Shettima Presidential Campaign Council, Bayo Onanuga, says the recent gaffe made by the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Dr Iyorchia Ayu, was a true reflection of what he has in mind
Ayu, a former academic and senate president mistakenly screamed ‘PDP has brought us shame and we will not retain them in power’ on Thursday while giving a speech captured on live broadcast at the Kano rally of the PDP.
Although he quickly corrected himself, the statement went viral and trended well on several online sites and social media platforms.
Reacting to the gaffe, Onanuga stated that Ayu’s mistake was not just a slip of tongue but a true position of what he has in mind.
According to him, the opposition PDP has failed Nigerians and brought shame during its administration in the last 16 years.
He said, “The unravelling of the depraved Peoples Democratic Party reached extreme absurdity yesterday when its National Chairman, Dr Iyorchia Ayu while campaigning in Kano, declared that the party brought shame to Nigeria. Ayu’s verdict on his own party should not be seen as a mere slip of tongue.
“It was truly an articulation of the inner mind of the former academic and senate president, a self-admission of the egregious failing of the party when it was in charge of our country for 16 years. Ayu’s viral statement that ‘PDP has brought us shame and we will not retain them in power’, concurs with the general verdict that the party failed the country and its people and should never be given a chance to return to power.
“One of the recent reminders of the failure of the umbrella party was the Ajaokuta Steel Complex. The party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar as head of the Obasanjo era privatisation programme, granted Global Steel a concession in 2004 to take over the company. Another PDP government cancelled the concession when it found out that it was a mess. Global Steel took the Nigerian government to court and demanded $7 billion compensation, even though it failed to fulfil the terms of the concession by making Ajaokuta a reality.
“The case lingered for 12 years until the APC administration of President Muhammadu Buhari stepped in. Global Steel agreed to end its legal battle and walk away with $496 million of Nigeria’s money. As the Minister of Information revealed recently, the Buhari government, which has been clearing many messes left by the successive PDP administration, made a bulk payment of $250 million and agreed to pay the balance in five instalments. Till date, Buhari has paid a total of $446 million out of the $496 million. The Buhari government will make the last payment of $50 million next month and Ajaokuta will revert fully to the country and allow the implementation of the government’s plan, including Russian intervention, to make the company operational.”