New Telegraph

Election: I Didn’t Work Against Peter Obi’s Presidency – Wike

Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State has broken the silence over his alleged involvement in depriving the Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate, Peter Obi of emerging victoriously in the February 25 election in the state.

Governor Wike who denied the accusations that he worked against Obi’s presidential bid said he could not have worked against Peter Obi when he supported him during his presidential campaign in the state, not minding that he was not his party member.

Wike stated this on Thursday when he hosted the National Executive Committee of ‘Ohanaeze Ndi Igbo’ Worldwide, at Government House, Port Harcourt.

According to the spokesman for the Igbo apex body, Dr Alex Ogbonnia, Wike told the delegation that during the Southern Governors’ meetings in Delta, Lagos and Enugu, there was never any talk about zoning presidency to Southeast Nigeria.

The governor told Ohanaeze that delegates from the South-East to the presidential primary/convention of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) voted for northerners despite the southern governors’ resolve that power must shift to the South after the end of President Muhammadu Buhari’s tenure.

He stated that throughout the meetings, “the issue of presidency to the Southeast was never on the table.’’

He said, “what is circulating in the social media is the handiwork of Wike adversaries.’’

“I am a man with the courage of my convictions and have no reasons to tell lies or to owe an apology to anyone.

“I am always ready to defend my actions any day and at any time, and I did not rig the presidential election against Obi.’’

Speaking on why Obi left the PDP, Wike said the reason Obi left PDP was that the former Jigawa State Governor, Sule Lamido told him pointedly the north would produce the next president.

He said, “I supported that power must come to the south. When Obi came here, I gave him all the logistics: vehicles, and other support and paid for the stadium, but some other persons applied and I refused. You should know me too well by now,” he said.

Explaining how Obi left the PDP for the Labour Party, he said, “Obi was running with us. I knew when Obi left. He was principled and he said he can’t stand it, people should say the truth.

He went to see Sule Lamido in Jigawa, not in Dutse, but in a village that will take you more than four or five hours drive from Dutse the capital.

“You know what he told Obi? He didn’t tell him that look, you came late and I have chosen somebody. He said it is the north that will produce the next president. That was how Obi left,  saying why is he wasting time. Ask him, that’s how he left PDP.

“And that was what I saw at the convention ground. Within minutes, knowing that I was going to win, your sons were all the ones who did everything and sabotaged me. I said ok, no problem.

“But I still maintained that look, if you have taken the presidential candidate you can’t take chairmanship again, give us back the chairman and I still stand by that and if you don’t do that whatever you see you take.”

He, however, said he felt satisfied that southern Nigeria has produced the next president of the country resulting from the 2023 presidential election, noting that, the electoral outcome was an undeniable justification of the undeterred advocacy embarked upon by the G-5 governors of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who worked so hard, contributing their quota to realise that feat.

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