By Obinna Nwaoku, Port Harcourt

Youths in Rivers State have threatened to protest and occupy the Government House, Port Harcourt, if Governor Nyesom Wike fails to unseal the hotel, filling station, lounge and the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) office he shutdown.

The youths decried the seeming witch-hunt of business owners, who have created jobs for people in the state. The youths described the development as unbearable, stressing that there is life and state after politics.

The youths noted that the action of the governor has thrown several youths out of jobs. They expressed worry that the governor is sacrificing future of the state on the altar of politics.

The youths, under the aegis of South South Youth Initiative (SSYI), spoke yesterday in Port Harcourt, following Wike’s reported threat to “crush anyone working for people in Abuja ahead of the 2023 presidential elections.”

The Guardian recalled that Security operatives, suspected to have come from the Government House Port Harcourt, had, at the weekend, sealed the Preray Hotel at Eagle Island, owned by Mr. Ikechi Chindthe, the former people Democratic Party (PDP) Port Harcourt Local Council Chairman, a a filling station, located at Ojoto Street in Mile One Diobu, owned by a serving House of Representatives member, Chinyere Igwe, and a lounge, owned by a former lawmaker in the State House of Assembly, Mr. Jones Ogbonda.

The trio, whose properties were sealed, are said to be loyalists to former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Austin Opara, who is said to be working for the PDP presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, and Uche Secondus, ex-party Chairman, who are in loggerheads with the governor.

While speaking at the flagging off ceremony of the construction of internal roads in Omagwa, Ikwerre Local Council of the state on Saturday, Wike said: “We removed a national party chairman, who was not doing well.

“All of them were here; we agreed; now they are going to Abuja to hold meetings with the man we removed, thinking that you will use that to fight us, we will crush them.”

Meanwhile, while speaking in Port Harcourt, the National President of the youth group , Mr. Saviour Imeabe, said: “ We condemn the political witch-hunt of some Rivers sons by the Wike. This act is not in the interest and development of the state. We, hereby, call for an end to every attempt by the governor to destroy the peace that the state is enjoying at the moment.”