Despite publicly endorsing an opposition candidate against her for the governorship position, gubernatorial candidate of the Labour Party in Rivers State, Mrs. Beatrice Itubo has denied speculations that she wa0s planning to mobilise party faithful in the state against the presidential candidate of the party, Peter Obi.
Port Harcourt Spectator recalls that the Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi who was in Rivers State few weeks ago on the invitation of the state governor, Chief Nyesom Ezenwo Wike to commission the Ikoku flyover had while making his speech referred to the governorship candidate of the PDP Siminialayi Fubara as the next governor of the state.
He also left Port Harcourt without visiting his party guber candidate who was on her sick bed. A situation which got supporters of the party angry as they took to their social media pages to register their anger.
Shortly after Obi left Port Harcourt, news emerged that Itubo had threatened to mobilise party faithful against Obi in the elections.
However, Itubo while speaking in an interview said she never said such a thing, describing such assertion as mischievous, insisting that as a party person, she was working in favour of the party and all her candidates.
Speaking on Obi not visiting to check on her, Itubo said, “I am not disappointed and that is exactly why you saw when some people now mischievously went to wherever to say I was saying I will mobilize Labour Party members against him, I quickly went on air and said I didn’t say so, and I will never say so, I am a party person, I am working for my president, I am working for all the national assembly members, I am working for myself, I am also working for the state assembly members, that is what it is, where Labour Party is that is where I am, because I know that we are going to win this election come 2023 by the grace of God.
“We want to rescue this state from bondage, from the hands of an emperor, from people who will carry our money when we are dying in abject poverty and begin to go and donate to people who are already living in affluence, that is exactly what we want to rewrite the narrative, so they should be steadfast, nobody should be worried.
“I am not disappointed, he (Obi) has sent a message on his twitter handle apologizing, that he didn’t know that I was sick in the first place. The truth is that he came for a private visit, and if not that some people are enthusiastic and some support groups wanted to go, I initially said it is not our program, it is a PDP program, let him go there, but when some of them came to me and start saying that let them go there and give him a rousing welcome so that they can know that we are on ground, I said okay, I am a democrat, you people should go, some of them saw what happened, some of them their clothes were torn in the process, and so the oversight was him not coming to see me, which he has apologized this morning if you check his official twitter handle, you will see it.
“Also, the statement of saying I will discuss with my people and all that, I feel that is political, someone is saying give me presidency, in the state talk to your people let them see how they can collapse and support me, so I don’t see what he said to be out of place, I will talk to my people, he has not called any of us to step down, he has not, so me I feel that any other person in that situation would have said such, because that word is just the fury of that occasion,” she said.
Itubo encouraged her supporters to, “continue to remain steadfast that I am getting better, in the next few weeks I will be on my feet again, but that is not stopping our campaign, the campaign is still moving, the deputy governor is there, all other campaign members are there.
“Nothing has spoiled so they should continue to remain steadfast, our goal is that we are taking over Brick House come 2023.”
She further called on the women to, “come out in their numbers, this is our time, because most of the people that have fought me, they have said a woman cannot rule Rivers State, that Rivers State is not right for a woman to rule, were we not created like the men, since the men have been ruling, where have they led us to?
“So, this is the time for the women, so they should come out with their support so that we can have this affirmative action, I promise the women that if I come on board, most of the positions will be 50/50, afterall when you look at it in number, we are more in numerical strength than the men, so why will they always be dominating us?
“You know women, but I know that this time around they are out for it, I am not going to relegate the men to the background, but they are also giving us full support, but everybody will be carried along and in equal proportion.”
