Rivers Governor Nyesom Wike has explained that his government stopped the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Presidential Campaign Council from using the Adokiye Amiesimaka Stadium to campaign for its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar to safeguard the facility from vandalism.
The Governor spoke at the kick-off of the Rivers PDP campaign for Degema Local Government Area that held at Agri Field in Degema town on Thursday.
Wike described the claim that the Rivers government did not want PDP Presidential Campaign Council to campaign in the State as erroneous as he recalled that the government earlier gave approval to the party to use the stadium at no cost.
He said: “Don’t say we stop them from holding rally, we didn’t. They applied to me and I gave (Adokiye Amiesimaka Stadium) them. They now went back and began to meet with the faction of the opposition and you know that the opposition has never held any rally without violence.
“And I said I cannot joke with Adokiye Amiesimaka Stadium. Since we have this intelligence we will not allow it. Did anybody force us to give them before? Are we not the ones who gave them? Did they pay money? Go and see the place. I know they are happy because they know there is no way they can fill that stadium. Instead of them to say thank God for covering our shame.”
He declared that the unit-by-unit mobilisation of voters adopted by the PDP in the State was one of the strategies that would make it difficult for security agencies to rig the 2023 general election.
The Governor maintained that electorate would participate in the forthcoming election following the mobilisation.