“At the end of the day, the leadership of the party will meet at the state level and decide where we heading to…”
Tony John, Port Harcourt
Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike has stated that the entire leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state would decide on the presidential aspirant to support ahead of the party’s presidential primary.
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Wike, at an interview in Government House, Port Harcourt, stated that the decision of Rivers delegates will not be determined by one person.
“At the end of the day, the leadership of the party will meet at the state level and decide where 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,” he stated.
“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 said that the decision on the way Rivers would go will be determined based on the overriding interest of the State.
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The governor said: “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 John Bull, 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” the people of the state into supporting a presidential aspirant with compromised credentials. He explained that some of the aspirants have been sponsored by President Buhari.
“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 APC! Come on, you direct me on who to support for president?” Wike expressed.
The governor said that the alleged plot by the APC-led Federal Government to use the security agencies to rig elections in Rivers State in 2019 would 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 stated that he would have nothing to do with godfather politics, pointing out that when he leaves in 2023, the people of the state will collectively choose his successor.
He said “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; 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. The young man forgot the interview he granted to 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'”.
The state governor said that those struggling to play godfather politics were doing so to protect themselves from criminal prosecution. He pointed out that Tonye Princewill in his 2014, interview with Premium Times outlined these issues.
“How much Rivers State assets were sold by the previous government to his friend and how it was used to fund the 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 asked.
Meanwhile, when Daily Sun contacted Tonye Princewill for reaction to the governor’s allegation, he dismissed the claim.