Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State has debunked reports that the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, reached out to him since the party’s primary election which took place in May.
The individuals contested the PDP presidential ticket which Atiku eventually won.
Atiku polled 371 votes to emerge as the PDP’s flagbearer ahead of Wike who scored 237 votes to come second in the contest.
The PDP candidate had picked Okowa as his running mate for the 2023 presidential election, despite the party’s national working committee (NWC) endorsing Wike for the role.
Since then, there have been claims that the Atiku camp had reached out to Wike to resolve their differences, which worsened with the announcement of Okowa as Atiku’s running mate.
Wike who had last week vowed to open up on issues that played out during and after the presidential primary election of the PDP with Atiku emerging as the party’s flag bearer spoke on Friday, 29 July, at the Port Harcourt International Airport shortly after he returned from a foreign trip.
He said, “After 31st of May, not one person has come to talk to me. It is most unfortunate when people tell lies. Some senators called me that Atiku Abubakar sent Saraki to me.
“That is not correct. I was in Spain. Bukola came to me and said, ‘My brother, how do we settle this problem?’ I asked ‘Did Atiku send you?’ He said no. I said, ‘Look at the issues.’ And he said that the matter is serious.
“He didn’t know of the issues. Atiku has never. Forget about sending rent-seekers and scavengers around him. Some of them would even call my friends and say, “O boy, tell your guy nau, make e support us’. It has been reduced to that level. I have become ‘guy’. I have never seen where serious minded people would reduce issues like this to this level.”
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