Abdulaziz Yari, the Director General of the All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council (APC-PCC), has set a target of 2.3 million votes for President Bola Tinubu in Rivers state for the upcoming election on January 16. Speaking at an APC presidential campaign rally in Port Harcourt on Saturday, Yari stated that the party intends to mobilize its supporters to achieve this specific numerical goal.
Yari addressed the crowd by asking them to raise their hands if they were prepared to support Nyesom Wike, the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), in delivering the required vote share. He justified the ambitious target by citing voter data provided by coalition leaders in the state, noting that out of 3.3 million registered voters, approximately 2.8 million Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) have been collected.
“Out of 3.3 million voters registered and about 2.8 million PVCs collected, we should be aiming at nothing less than 2.3 million,” Yari said.
The Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, reinforced the party’s confidence in the region, stating that Rivers was the only state in the South-South where Tinubu won convincingly in 2023. Akpabio expressed the view that the state is ready to repeat this performance and highlighted that under Tinubu’s administration, Nigeria now derives more revenue from taxation than from crude oil.
National Chairman of the APC, Nentawe Yilwatda, described the Tinubu-Shettima ticket as “the best for now in Nigeria,” emphasizing the party’s strong voter base in the area. “Here, we have the numbers. Here, we have the voters,” he said regarding Rivers state.
During the rally, Yari also directed criticism at the opposition, arguing that figures such as Atiku Abubakar, Peter Obi, and Rotimi Amaechi had previously held government positions without achieving tangible results. Meanwhile, Senator Magnus Abe, speaking on behalf of Rivers stakeholders, defended the Rainbow Coalition. Abe noted that while coalition members have diverse interests, their primary objective is to return the president to power, expressing surprise at internal party members who have spoken negatively about the coalition.
<small>Source: Vanguard News — read the original story there.</small>
