Non-indigenes flay Wike, declare support for Abe

Governorship candidate of Social Democratic Party (SDP) in Rivers State, Magnus Abe, has promised to run inclusive government, if elected the governor of the state next year.

Abe, who has attempted to govern the state since 2015, said if he wins, everyone would be a stakeholder and all residents of the state would be treated equally, irrespective of tribe or ethnic nationality.

This is as some non-indigenes alleged inhumane treatment by the Governor Nyesom Wike administration, claiming that their shops, houses were demolished while some of them have remained displaced.

The senator, who represented Rivers South-East in the House of Representatives, spoke while inaugurating SDP’s non-indigene executives and reception for defectors into the party.

Non-indigenes from different ethnic groups, including Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa, Ijaw, among others, gathered at the weekend and expressed support and willingness to work and ensure the actualisation of Abe’s political ambition in 2023.

The spokesman for the group, Ibrahim Musa, claimed that Rivers residents, particularly the non-indigenes doing business in various markets and locations in the state were passing through difficulties.

Musa said: “We want to assure you that the entire ethnic nationalities in Rivers State are solidly behind you. We have been banking our votes because of what the present government in the state is doing to non-indigenes in the state. We form over 75 per cent of the population of the state.

“We have been humiliated, subjected to different kinds of difficulties, hardship in the state, most of us have been in this state for over 50 years, going about our businesses lawfully.”

“What happened to non-indigenes in this state in Slaughter Market, trailer park in Onne, Ikokwu, Mile One market, to name a few, is unbearable and unspeakable.”