Emmanuel Masha 
Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike has described the failure of the presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, to win the presidential election as a direct consequence of ignoring the warnings of the G5 governors.
Wike said that the fate that befell PDP was avoidable if the party’s national leadership had heeded the several appeals to adopt the principle of equity, fairness and justice before the presidential election.
The Governor who spoke at Okomoko Community Field while inaugurating the Chokocho-Igbodo Road in Etche Local Government Area of the state said it is now settled that the presidency has returned to the south because the north is completing its eight years at the presidency.
Wike said: “Our constitution says in section 7: 3c that there shall be a rotation of public offices; of appointive and elective. You took the chairmanship of the party. You took the presidential candidate slot of the party and we came to you, saying this is against the spirit of our constitution.
“Give us back the chairmanship, you said no, that you must have it all because you have won. I said be careful then, and nobody wants to remember all those things when we were shouting.”
Wike stated that while others are demonstrating against the outcome of the presidential elections, he is in Rivers inaugurating projects and satisfying the development needs of the people.
The governor explained that there was no time he criticised either the Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi or the All Progressives Congress (APC) Asiwaju Bola Tinubu during the campaigns, but only campaigned to true lovers of Nigeria to vote for a southern presidential candidate.
He said: “That is what we have argued for, that the north has had it for 8 years, therefore the south should have it for 8 years. So, I am not here to persecute anybody.
“As far as I am concerned, anybody from the south is where I stand. That is what we agreed as an integrity group that we must make sure that the south emerges as the next president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
