Speaker: Rivers will support APC consensus candidate – Wike assures
Rivers Governor Nyesom Wike has promised the State will support any candidate unanimously presented by the national leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for Speakership of the 10th House of Representatives.
The Governor however insisted that persons to be nominated as principal officers must be individuals with the requisite experience to steer the affairs of the legislature.
Wike spoke on Monday when the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Ahmed Idris Wase, led a delegation of other lawmakers to visit him in Government House, Port Harcourt.
He explained that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) won 11 out of the 13 federal constituencies in the State, insisting that the lawmakers-elect would back whoever the national leadership of the ruling APC would present as their sole candidate for the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
He said: “The way we are now, the truth must be told that we are going to support the leadership of your party at the national level. I am not going to support anybody that is coming from anywhere.”
The Governor said only those with requisite experience and capacity to stabilise the country should be presented as principal officers of the 10th House of Representatives.
“You (Wase) are an experienced person. What we require now is experience as far as legislature is concern. Experience will stabilise the House. So you don’t require a green horn,” he said.
Wike, in a statement signed by his Special Assistant, Media, Kelvin Ebiri, maintained that he remained grateful to the APC Governors and other leaders of the party for zoning the party’s presidential ticket to the south.
According to him, by the decision, the APC leaders have demonstrated their firm belief in inclusivity of every section of Nigeria in the scheme of things.
He said: “I thank your party for coming out openly to say power has to rotate. Everybody now knows that whoever finishes for eight years, it goes to another area and that will be inclusiveness, it will bring unity. That is what will stabilise this country.”
The Rivers Governor insisted that the decision of the APC to zone the presidency to the South was in sync with the fundamental objectives of the PDP G-5 governors, who stood for equity, fairness and justice.
