From Tony John, Port Harcourt

 

Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, has mocked Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) over the endorsement of Peter Obi, Labour Party’s presidential by former president Olusegun Obasanjo.

This is as the Rivers governor has taken a swipe against those accusing him and Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State of frustrating the micro-zoning of the presidential ticket of PDP to the South East.

The governor said Obasanjo’s refusal to endorse Atiku was an indication that there was something fundamentally wrong with Atiku who was Obasanjo’s vice president from 1999 to 2003.

He spoke, yesterday, at Itu Bridge Head, venue of the flag-off of the Akpabu-Odido Road in Emohua Local Government Area.

He said it was funny that the former president, who was the engineer of the legacies upon which Atiku was campaigning for presidency, had failed to recommend him for the job.

Wike said: “If you are bad product, you are a bad product, if you are a good product, you are a good product. You worked under somebody, the person has recommended to Nigerians another person, is it me?

“I worked with somebody for eight years and we are using it as a campaign that when we were in office we did well, then my boss is recommending another person to be there, something is fundamentally wrong. I was praying that Obasanjo should not say anything, when I saw the letter last night I was touched. If your principal does not recommend you, then there’s something fundamentally wrong.”

Wike said he had always believed and supported concerted efforts towards ensuring that the presidency was zoned to the South and that he could not have frustrated micro-zoning to the South East.

“I was one of those who led the campaign that the party’s chairmanship should go to the North because I believed the presidency should go to the South. I attended meetings of southern governors of All Progressives Congress (APC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and other parties from Delta to Lagos to Enugu states, where we agreed that presidency should come to the South.”

The Rivers Governor insisted that while southern cross-party consultations were ongoing, there were people in the PDP who were bent on frustrating the eventual zoning of the party’s presidential ticket to the South.

He claimed it was strange for people to now turn around to cast the blame on him and Governor Ortom to hide their scheme thinking they could deceive Nigerians.

“I woke up this morning and read where they said, how Wike and Ortom frustrated PDP’s micro-zoning of presidential ticket to South East. That was what the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku, said. 

“I keep on saying, they’ll be contradicting themselves, telling lies up and down, thinking Nigerians don’t know. How can they say I influenced Ortom, told him to allow and throw the ticket open?

“Nigerians know those who are opposed to zoning of the party’s chairmanship first. And when the zoning committee was set up, this time, Atiku had gone to buy form to frustrate the recommendation of the zoning committee. So that when they have bought form, they could say, oh, there is no need of zoning, will you tell people to withdraw?.

“So, saying that I and Ortom frustrated PDP micro-zoning to South East is neither here nor there. They know they don’t want presidency to come to the South,” he said.