Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, has alleged that some aggrieved gubernatorial aspirants who lost in the state governorship primaries conspired to prevent his emergence as the vice presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Wike said some of them, who he described as “elders”, after they failed to clinch the PDP gubernatorial ticket in Rivers State mobilised in Abuja to ensure that he did not emerge as the running mate of the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar.
The governor, according to a statement issued on Monday by his Special Assistant on Media, Kelvin Ebiri, revealed this during the 74th birthday reception of a former governor of Rivers State, Dr. Peter Odili, at his residence Port Harcourt, the state capital.
“On my last birthday, 12 midnight, one of our elders called me that they want to see me. They came to me and said they came to wish me happy birthday.
“Then, they presented me a letter that I should run for President. All of them, including Dr. Abiye (Sekibo) signed the document.
“I said ‘okay, you people too should go and give me someone who will be governor after me.’ They all sat there, looking left and right.
“I asked them, ‘those of you who are interested to be governor should raise your hands.’ Everybody raised his hand. One person didn’t raise his hand, Senator Bari Mpigi.
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“I asked why he was not interested, he replied, ‘sir, let me hold what God has given me. I don’t want to lose the two,” the governor was quoted as saying.
Wike further stated that the elders signed a document to accept the outcome of the governorship primary only to reject it when it did not favour them.
He added: “Some persons don’t know the history. They go and tell all kinds of story. But the truth is this: all of them (elders) signed the document prepared by O.C.J. Okocha that whoever I will bring, they will abide to it.
“But now, they went to Abuja, that I must not be vice-president. I also read yesterday when I was in Paris, one of them saying that I told him that if they do to me what they did to Dr. Odili, that I will collapse the system.
“I am not an ungrateful person and I will never be ungrateful in my life. What is important is that I have done well as a governor. I am happy and I am leaving office a happy man,” Governor Wike said.
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