Tony John, Port Harcourt
Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, has stated that the entire leadership of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP ) in the state, would decide on the PDP presidential aspirant to support ahead of the party’s presidential primary.
Governor Wike, in an interview in Government House, Port Harcourt, stated that the direction of Rivers delegates will not be determined by one person.
He said: “At the end of the day, the leadership of the party will meet at the state level and decide where are we heading to?
“Then, we will all be together. No one individual can do it alone. So, Rivers state will move as a team. I will listen to the leadership of the party, then, we will move forward.
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“Who are we going to support? Where is the national survey? Who is more popular? This is how politics is played.
“I challenge any of the presidential aspirants from the North, who have gone to other governors and they have given them campaign coordinators, I challenge them to mention if I have given them one name.”
He also said that the decision on the way that Rivers would go will not be determined by sentiments but by the over-riding interest of the state.
“Can anybody say I have met him one day to say support so, so, and so presidential aspirant? People have been coming here and I told them I will not and I will never nominate anybody to be a liaison to any of the presidential aspirants. Not one person, I challenge them.
“Atiku (Abubakar) came here, (Sule) Lamido came here, Makarfi came here, Saraki came here, Tambuwal came here, (Ibrahim) Shekarau came here, (Attahiru) Bafarawa came here.
Let one person say I have ever said take Joseph, take John, take JohnBull, take Beatrice as your campaign coordinator like some do.
“I don’t deceive people, I will not deceive people, and I will not deceive my people,” he stressed.
The governor further stated that nobody will blindfold Rivers people into supporting a presidential aspirant with compromised credentials.
He alleged that some of the aspirants are under the sponsorship of President Muhammadu Buhari.
He said: “One thing you must take home is that I cannot be misled, I cannot be blindfolded. I know what’s going on.
I know what the presidency and the APC are doing to plant a presidential aspirant in the PDP.
“I have not even mentioned how a very senior official of a security agency in the country told me which of the candidates to support!
“You can imagine me as a governor and the head of a security agency would tell me to support one or two persons.
Head of security agency, who is in a government controlled by the All Progressives Congress! Come on! You direct me on who to support for president?”
The governor reiterated that the plot by the APC-led Federal Government to deploy security agencies to rig elections in Rivers state in 2019, will fail.
“It won’t happen in my state, but, I know they will kill a lot of persons. I can tell you they will kill a lot of us. No problem, this is the sacrifice we have to make for democracy to thrive”.
Governor Wike equally stated that he would have nothing to do with godfather politics, and pointed out that when he leaves office in 2023, the people of the state will collectively choose his successor.
“I’m on record and my friends, my colleagues, they know me and I have told them. I am a student of history; mention who has survived it.
That you put your life, you put your blood to bring somebody. So, as a student of History, I know it does not work that way.
“I will do what I have come to do, to serve my people and when my time has come to an end, those who want to run, let them run. Let the people of Rivers state decide, it is you, it is him.
And, that is the problem we are having; people want to continue to be godfathers, how and that is the problem we are having without development.
“When I hear some people make comments, with all due respect, I don’t want to talk about persons, when I hear about one, they call him Tonye Princewill and I laugh.
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The young man forgot the interview he granted the Premium Times, he forgot the interview, and people forget history.
That these things are documented, so, I now hear what he’s saying, I say oh my God.
“How much Rivers State assets were sold by the previous government to his friend and how it was used to fund election of Buhari and the rest.
He forgot easily. Today, he is saying a different thing and I say what kind of characters do we have? “ Governor Wike said.
When Daily Sun contacted Tonye Princewill for his reaction to the governor’s allegation, he simply dismissed the claim.
Good comment
Good comment. Wike is the man. Let Wike also educate his colleague other PDP governors to allow a collective decision by their State PDF and not single handedly taking decision and imposing same on them. It is no doubt from recent movements that APC and Buhari must be desperate to impose their puppet on PDP as their candidate, pretending to be having problems with such impostors. Some of such puppets were used in 2015 to destabilise PDP. PDP should not be twice beaten. PDP has abundance loyal and proven capable hands from the North including Muslim Fulani and Christians alike. The Fulani Muslim brothers have greater moral obligation to support Christian brothers this time around. I seriously doubt if Buhari and APC could be fronting a Christian to hold fort for them in PDP. So to avoid any mishaps, PDP should look for a competent Northern Christian to fly its flag this time, having supported Fulani Muslims all along. This move if adopted will appeal to the majority of people from across the country especially if the aspirant is from the North Central that has not produced PDP candidate before.