PDP faults Woka’s claims on readiness of parties to participate in Rivers LG polls

Rivers State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has described comments credited to Mr. Sam Woka, claiming that about 25 political parties have so far indicated interest to participate in the Amaechi-proposed Local Government polls in the State, as ‘outright falsehood.’

In faulting Woka’s claims, the PDP said it felt concerned that “a Permanent Secretary in the State Ministry of Information and Communications and a Civil Servant of that status, who at least ought to exhibit some elements of neutrality in certain political issues such as this, sadly compromised the public trust in him for selfish interest to justify the political vendetta by his paymasters.”

“Although not surprising that Woka has abandoned the ministry’s work and taken over the job of the spokesman for the Rivers State Electoral body, RSIEC, which he was before his new appointment by Gov Amaechi, and has since continued to act in that regard, Mr Woka has only publicly exposed his loyalty and membership of APC which he tried to conceal over the years,” the Rivers PDP statement stated.

The PDP, however, expressed doubt over the ability of Woka to succeed in his mission to launder the image of his principals, Amaechi and the APC chieftains, as well as ‘the faulty foundation on which the proposed May 23 LG poll is being laid by the Commission in which he served as Press Secretary.’

“Wokais only dancing naked in the sun as the problems associated with the LG polls are insurmountable, such that the Commission and Gov Amaechi cannot contend with. Woka does not have any evidence to substantiate his claim as popular opinion does not favour the conduct of the LG election as suddenly proposed by Amaechi and the APC leaders.

The PDP therefore called on ‘the Permanent Secretary turned APC spokesman’ to use this period to concentrate on his Commissioner’s hand over note, rather than ‘making unfounded claim to justify the wrong and ill-conceived action of the Amaechi’s APC in the state.’

On the allegations that the former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Austin Opara, does not live in the state and will therefore not know what happens in it, the PDP insists that Opara lives in the state as a senior citizen and is abreast of developments going on in the State, saying ‘it is Mr. Woka that is dislocated from true positions of affairs in the State because of his parochial understanding of emerging issues.’

Similarly, the PDP viewed comments credited to a House member and chieftain of the APC, Hon Golden Chioma, that the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission Law regarding the conduct of LG election in the State was amended in 2007, as negating the position held by the Majority Leader of the House, Hon Chidi Lloyd, who had earlier said the RSIEC amendment was done in 2011, describing this development as ‘a state of confusion occasioned by the dubious manner the State Government wants to pervert justice in the State.’