RIVERS 2015: ELDERS ISSUE 7-DAY ULTIMATUM TO PDP, JONATHAN TO WITHDRAW WIKE FROM GOV RACE.

Elders in Rivers State on Monday issued a seven-day ultimatum to the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and President Goodluck Jonathan to withdraw Chief Nyesom Wike as the PDP's candidate from the 2015 governorship race.

They called on Jonathan to prevail on Wike to withdraw from the race on or before January 5, 2015 in his (Jonathan's) interest.

According to the elders under the aegis of the Rivers Leaders and Elders' Council, it has become necessary for the PDP and Jonathan to prevail on Wike to stepdown in order to avoid losing the governorship election in the state.

Chairman of the elders council, Chief Albert Horsfall, who issued this ultimatum in Port Harcourt, warned that "the people of the state would vote for only the political party that presented a riverine person as their candidate" if Wike fails to drop his ambition.

Horsfall added that he has directed leaders and elders from the various ethnic groups in the state to vote for the 'next bigger' party that presents a riverine person as their flag bearer.

The elders council, however, appealed to various political parties in the state to field a riverine person as their governorship candidate, adding that the people of the state wouldn't be "intimidated into succumbing to injustice and slavery for the next 50 years as a result of the failure of the state PDP to embrace zoning of the governorship position in the state."