Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, on Sunday, vowed that he won’t allow any cabal to determine his successor as the governor of the state in 2023.
Wike said he’ll resist any group or persons, no matter how powerful, to foist anyone on Rivers State as the next governor of the state.
He, however, declared that he had not anointed anyone as his successor in office.
Wike enjoined church leaders in the state to pray for a rancour-free transition in the run up to the 2023 elections.
The governor stated this on Sunday during a special thanksgiving church service in commemoration of the second anniversary of his administration’s second tenure at St Paul’s Cathedral, Diobu, Port Harcourt.
Wike, who said the remaining two years of his administration would be crucial, said he had never promised to hand over reins of governance in Rivers State to anyone at the end of his tenure in 2023.
According to him, “Let me say it again, I have never sat with anybody to say I will make you governor. But, as a Governor, nobody from anywhere, be it in the party, in Abuja, will impose who will be the candidate of PDP in Rivers State.
“Nobody can impose a candidate here in this state. So, if you are running to Abuja, you are wasting your time.”
The governor disclosed that the state’s leaders and stakeholders would meet at the appropriate time to take a collective decision on who his successor will be in 2023.
Wike, however, said he was aware that some persons pretending to be his ally were actually political enemies planning evil against his administration, praying to God to continue to expose such persons as the state began preparations for another transition.
The governor noted that inspite of the crisis instigated to destabilise his administration in 2015 and 2019, he had not been found wanting in the delivery of the dividends of democracy to the people of the state.
Wike, who attributed the sustenance and successes of his administration to divine guidance and protection, said without God machination of some All Progressives Congress governors would have overcome him.
He assured that he would not relent in delivering needed infrastructure to every part of the state inspite of the little time left in his second tenure.