The Rivers State All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate in the recently concluded election, Tonye Cole has disclosed, the reason for his absence during the visit of the president-elect, Bola Tinubu to the state.
Recall that the President-elect on Wednesday visited Rivers State at the invitation of Governor Nyesom Wike.
Speaking on the invitation, Cole said he was absent because he was not invited
He argued that Wike ought to have let the APC in Rivers State know he was inviting Tinubu and intended for them to participate in the event.
He stated this on Thursday while taking questions for the Morning Show show on Arise Television.
He said, ”I will describe the visit from two sides. First side of it is the President-elect. As a President-elect of Nigeria, he has the right to go anywhere. And the Rivers State Government invited him, and he has come, honoured that invitation, and has come to Rivers State as a President-elect; with that, we have no problem at all.
”Where the issue is is that the Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, ought also to be the governor of all Rivers people. And one of the things that he should have done if he is inviting the President-elect, who is the President-elect of all Nigerians, would have been to call us as APC in Rivers State to inform us that he is inviting the President-elect and would want us to be part of that programme.
”We never got any invitation, I was never invited personally, I was not invited in my private capacity as a candidate of the party, neither was our party, APC, in the State invited to any of those things, and I believe that is where the difference between the President-elect acting in his capacity as President-elect for all Nigerians and Governor Wike acting in his capacity as a governor of just a particular Rivers people. That is where our disagreement stands.”
