THE Rivers State Obidient Support Groups Coalition has reaffirmed its support for the Labour Party’s governorship candidate, Beatrice Itubo, dismissing claims that they endorsed the Peoples Democratic Party’s candidate, Sim Fubara.
The reiteration by the Obidients, as Peter Obi’s supporters are called, comes after the controversial declaration by Dienye Pepple, the deposed Rivers State Labour Party Chairman, that they would be backing Fubara over their own candidate in the next governorship election.
Ceaser Arinze, leader of the Obidients group, stated in a fully packed auditorium at the Labour Party secretariat in the Diobu district of Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, that the former party chairman misinformed Rivers people and Nigerians.
“It has come to our notice that the recently dissolved executive of the Labour Party in Rivers State led by its Chairman Comrade Deinye Pepple in his adoption speech of the PDP candidate, Sim Fubara, had misinformed Rivers people and Nigerians claiming that the Obidients are part of the agreement or endorsement of Mr Fubara.
“We the Obidients resident in Rivers State unequivocally state that we are not part of their merchandising. We have no intention to move away from our goals and objectives of building a new Nigeria with our principal Mr. Peter Obi,” he said.
Speaking at the same time, veteran Nollywood actress Hilda Dokubo, who has been selected as the acting Chairman of the Labour Party in Rivers State, emphasized that the Obidients are not in favour of the former Chairman’s declaration and are unsure how their name got involved.
“The Obidients were mentioned in the story and we have called ourselves as Obidients resident in Rivers State who are also voters. We have called ourselves to find out exactly how we got in a conversation that we were not invited and the result of all our meeting is what we are here to discuss and to let the world know,” Dokubo said.
On her part, the the Labour Party governorship candidate Itubo berated the dissolved party executives in the state, saying that all they cared about was money.
“We know very well that these people have never been there from the beginning but we just wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt because a lot of indices has pointed to us that they are moles.
“Right from the times of the campaigns, these are executives that before they follow you to campaign they will say you must pay them. It is on record that every day these people followed us to campaign we chattered bus for them and we pay them N150,000 and that doesn’t include if the South-South man is coming with us, he will say we should give him his own 50 separately, the chairman we also say we give him another 50 separate.
“So every time we go out we are spending about N250,000 on them when party faithful, the support groups that have been coming in their numbers volunteers themselves without collecting a dime,” Itubo said.
Following the Pepple-led executive’s endorsement of Fubara, the National Chairman of the Labour Party dissolved the Rivers State executive.
Since then, the party has appointed Dokubo as acting chairman and formed a new executive to manage the party in the state.
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