The gubernatorial candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 general elections in Rivers State, Beatrice Itubo, has disclosed that her decision to run was fueled by the purported mistreatment suffered by Rivers State workers under the administration of former Governor Nyesom Wike.
Itubo, who spoke when members of the New Dimension for Rivers State paid her a visit in her country home in Ogbakiri, Emohua Local Government Area of the state, said the Wike administration impoverished Rivers people.
Stating that no king reigns forever, Itubo noted that the attitude of some political gladiators is de-marketing the state, and urged them to sheath their swords and allow the current administration to be.
She said, “I decided to contest that 2023 election not because I wanted to show myself up to Rivers people, no.
“We have been in the struggle for a very long time and when the immediate past governor of Rivers State came on board, I saw something different.
“I saw real hatred for the workers of Rivers State. I don’t know any other language that I will use other than that hatred, because someone who will be in power for eight years, didn’t promote any worker in Rivers State.
“For that number of years, he didn’t pay any pensioner gratuity. People were retiring and going home.
“When they want to key you in your monthly pension as you retire today, they will leave you for about two years, nobody is paying you a dime.”
Before she emerged as the gubernatorial candidate for the Labor Party, Itubo was the state chairman of the Nigeria Labor Congress, NLC, which gave then Governor Wike a tough time on issues concerning civil servants in the state.
Itubo, who came fourth in the 2023 governorship election in Rivers State, had approached the tribunal, challenging the election of Governor Siminalayi Fubara of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
She lost at the tribunal and went ahead to the Appeal Court where she also lost.
Itubo went further with her case to the Supreme Court.
She, however, announced that her case against the governor had been dropped at the apex court, a few days after her visit to Fubara.
In the meantime, the Supreme Court is expected to hear the case brought by the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Patrick Tonye-Cole, challenging Fubara’s election, on Monday, 15 January, 2024.
