… Insists LP will participate in LG polls
By: Felix Ikpotor
Contrary to insinuations that she has taken sides in the current political crisis rocking Rivers State, Labour Party governorship candidate in the 2023 general election in the state, Beatrice Itubo has stated that all she wants is peace and progress in the state.
Recall that there had been no love lust between the Federal Capital Territory Minister, Nyesom Wike and his predecessor, Governor Siminalayi Fubara, since late last year over alleged political ‘structure’.
However, there has been speculations that the LP candidate has taken sides with the FCT minister following pictures of her visit to the minister in Abuja which surfaced recently on the social media space.
But reacting to the pictures, Itubo said it was a private visit and has nothing to do with politics, adding that it was petty for people to draw political conclusions from her visit to Wike.
Itubo who stated this on the sideline of the birthday celebration of the National President of South South Youths Initiative, SSYI, Comrade Imeabe Saviour Oscar in Port Harcourt, maintained that her interest in the current crisis is for the state to move forward.
The Labour Party candidate said as a mother, she has the moral duty to find lasting peace to the political crisis in the state.
“I’m not Wikefied and I’m not also Simplified. I’m Beatrice Itubo, the governorship candidate of Labour Party in the 2023 election and that is where I stand.
“I want peace in Rivers State, I want Nigeria to also move forward so it is my duty to play that motherly role of making peace. I met with Siminalayi Fubara and there was no much controversy about it, why now meeting with Wike becoming a problem?” she queried.
She insisted that if she had wanted to a make political statement with the visit she would have done so since returning to the state, insisting that it was purely private and for the peace of the state.
“He’s a Rivers son and when we met, we talked and if it was something I wanted to make a political statement with I would have done that, so you should know that it was just a private visit. I don’t belong to any camp. All I want is peace and progress and that Nigeria should move forward,” she stated.
Commenting on the October 5, 2024, local council polls in Rivers State, she insisted that LP was going to participate fully as the party already have candidates for chairmen and councillorship positions in the 23 councils of the state.
“For Labour Party, we have our candidates, we are preparing. Whether RSIEC is serious or not would only be told on the day of the election. Like INEC, they would promise you heaven and earth and at the end they do the contrary, but for now, we are going by what they have said and we believe that, unless anything happens and there is the contrary,” she said.
Itubo used the opportunity to dispel rumours of division within the party, insisting that all issues relating to party leadership had been resolved by stakeholders of the party.
