Some of the states where the incoming governors may not have the honour of re¬ceiving the baton from their predecessors include Benue, Plateau, Kaduna and Rivers.
Saturday Sun gathered that it is certain that Governor Gabriel Suswam of the PDP will not be physically present to formally hand over to his successor, Samuel Ortom of the APC. “The governor has hinted that it will be unsafe for him to be at the ceremony because of security report which shows that civil ser¬vants who are being owed for several months and angry youths will storm the parade ground to protest and boo him”, a source close to the incoming governor stated.
It was also gathered that the event, which will be at¬tended by the state deputy governor, Chief Steven La¬wani, will be low key and more or less informal. “This is so because the outgoing government did not give any money for any ceremony and the incoming doesn’t have that kind of resources for any major event. As a result, no formal IV is being sent out to our people”, the source added.
In Rivers, Governor Roti¬mi Amaechi of the APC will find it difficult to physically hand over to his political arch-enemy, Nyesom Wike of the PDP. APC is already at the governorship election petition tribunal to seek nul¬lification of the election that produced Wike on the ground that no election actually held in the state.“Most likely, Governor Amaechi may delegate any top official to conduct the ceremony or ask his deputy, Engr Tele Ikuru who had since defected to the PDP to do it. Besides, Governor Amaechi will likely be busy in Abuja at the inaugura¬tion of the president-elect”, a Rivers State Government House source told Saturday Sun.
In Plateau State, Gover¬nor Jonah Jang of the PDP may equally boycott the cer¬emony over fears of security breach by supporters of the APC governor-elect, Mr Si¬mon Lalong. The event may be coordinated by his deputy or reduced to Government House ceremony with only a handful of invited guests in attendance.
The situation will not be different in Kaduna and Bau¬chi states where the outgoing PDP governors may equally excuse themselves from the ceremony over fears of be¬ing booed or attacked by supporters of APC incoming governors.
Saturday Sun gathered that the security report on Kaduna and Bauchi states in¬dicate that “Governors Yero and Yuguda may come un¬der attack because of the low level of their present popu¬larity among their people who blame them for what¬ever problems or challenges, whether right or wrong, they are facing at the moment.”
-Sun