The development agenda for Rivers State, ahead the forthcoming elections has become a subject of litigation, the accusation and counter-accusation between the state chapters of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC).
This was as the PDP governorship candidate in the state, Nyesom Wike, has threatened a court action against his APC counterpart, Honourable Dakuku Peterside, who had alleged that his economic blueprint was cloned by Wike.
Wike had, on Monday, unveiled his 19-point agenda, tagged, ‘the Blueprint’, for the state, ahead the forthcoming elections but Peterside alleged that the PDP standard-bearer had only plagiarised, cloned and copied the APC agenda, saying he would seek a legal redress over the act.
He also claimed that he had earlier got wind of the plan by PDP to hack into the APC website to copy its agenda and threatened to challenge the PDP candidate in the court over the issue.
Addressing a press conference in Port Harcourt, Wike, however, said there was no iota of truth in the allegation by the APC governorship candidate.
Speaking through the co-chairman of the PDP Blueprint Planning Committee, Wike said the document was as a result of painstaking planning and brainstorming spanning more than 10 months.
He said the document was prepared by himself and his running mate, along with a team of renowned academics and professionals, who had distinguished themselves in their various chosen fields.
According to Wike, PDP, after a rigorous primaries election involving over 21 aspirants each with ideas and concepts of governance drawn from the PDP manifesto, began work on his blueprint about 10 months ago.
He said the PDP blueprint clearly defined itself in its layout and content, vision and mission and defined the driving force namely, “New Rivers State characterised by a new vision, new thinking and better opportunities.
“The PDP blueprint is a social contract between PDP as a political party and our candidate as our flag bearer, on one hand, and the residents of Rivers State. Our mission document has a clearly set out table of contents that directs the attention of the readership to any area of specific interest or concern.
“Consequently, on the spurious allegation, PDP has obtained a printed copy and downloaded an electronic version of a document APC describes as a road map.
“The PDP analysis of what the APC claims to be a road map does not reveal any correlation whatever between the APC document and blueprint of the PDP governorship candidate. Clearly, APC in Rivers State and its governorship candidate do not understand the grammatical meaning of the words clone, plagiarism and copy.
“In framing the PDP blueprint, due congnisance was taken of the rot that is now prevalent in Rivers State. The sorry state of affairs was captured in a video documentary that visually described, chronicled and presented the rot and decadence in all sectors of our Rivers society, especially ,in education, health, roads and infrastructure to mention but a few.
“These are in contradistinction to the consultant-prepared, unstructured document of the APC governorship candidate that consist more of verbose phrases, incoherent statements than structured policies”, he said.
According to Wike, the PDP blueprint addressed thorny issues such as the closure of the courts, comatose state of the legislature, dysfunctional and crisis ridden government, reduction of governance to a one- man dictatorship, the questionable sale of state’s assets as well as dilapidated road infrastructure.
He said the claim by Peterside that his blueprint was cloned was an assault on the integrity of the PDP governorship candidate and the team that facilitated the blueprint and demands a retraction and apology or risk legal actions by the party.
He further said that, while he was eager to go to court over the issue, he was restrained by the fact that the state judiciary had been in limbo since last July, adding that he would take the appropriate legal action as soon as the courts were opened or when PDP take over the reins of government in Rivers State.
