Rivers State governor, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike 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 the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to South-East.
Wike said he had always believed and supported concerted effort towards ensuring that the presidency was zoned to the south.
He spoke at Itu Bridge Head, venue of the flag-off of the Akpabu- Odido Road in Emohua Local Government Area on Monday.
“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 the 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.”
Wike insisted that while southern cross-party consultations were going on, there were people in the PDP who were bent on frustrating the eventual zoning of the party’s presidential ticket to the South.
Such people, he maintained, cannot 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 that Nigerians don’t know. How can they say that I influenced Ortom, told him to allow and throw the ticket open?
Wike said further, “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?”
He said it is rather note worthy that their gimmick is now hunting them because they were unfair to Nigerians.
“Yes, you don’t like Ortom, no problems. I know my own, you don’t like me, no problems. But I, my state gave you the highest support in 2019 both with logistics and by votes. You can’t deceive every Nigerians again. What I have stood for is equity, fairness and justice.
“So, saying that I and Ortom frustrated PDP micro-zoning to South East is nether here nor there. They know that they don’t want presidency to come to the South”, he added.
He urged the presidential candidate of the PDP to leave him out of the attendant challenges he is facing in the party.
Wike, however, stated that a bad product is always difficult to sell, otherwise, former president Olusegun Obasanjo would have recommended Alhaji Atiku Abubakar to Nigerians having worked together with him.
But, instead of doing so, he noted, that the former president chooses to endorsed another presidential candidate, Mr. Peter Obi.
Wike insisted that if former president Obasanjo had refused to recommend Atiku, then something must be fundamentally wrong.
He said that Atiku should be more concerned about that loss of confidence from his former boss, and his coming election.
Commenting on the road project, Wike expressed gratitude to God that the Odido community will get modern road for the first time in their history during his administration.
He boasted that given the overwhelming joy expressed by the Odido people, it is difficult to believe that they will cast their votes for candidates of another party except the PDP.
Providing a description of the project, Rivers State Commissioner for Works Dr George-Kelly Dakorinima Alabo said the Akpabu-Odido Road also has a 22meters long bridge.
According to him, with the contractor already mobilised to site about two months ago, the project will be completed within agreed five months period.
This will in turn, he said, enable members of the community drive on road for the first time into their homestead, enjoy associated development, gain easy access to their farms and improved commercial life.
In his speech, the Chairman of Emohua Local Government Area, Dr. Chidi Lloyd said the Odido community is an island that have never seen asphalted road and is not link to any neighbouring community.
With the flag-off and commencement of actual construction work, Dr. Lloyd enthused that it will be the end of the ordeal Odido people usually suffer.
Meanwhile, the Chief Press Secretary to Governor of Delta, Mr Olisa Ifeajika, on Monday said the Vice-Presidential Candidate of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, did not betray anyone in the party’s presidential primary.
Speaking at a news conference in Asaba, Ifeajika said that as a loyal partyman, the governor heeded PDP’s directives and decisions in all matters concerning the presidential convention.
He recalled that the Southern Governors’ Forum in a meeting in Asaba resolved, and later reiterated in subsequent meetings in Lagos meeting and Enugu to work towards the realisation of Southern Presidency.
Ifeajika pointed out that Southern Governors’ Forum comprised members from various political parties, and that the resolution of the Forum was only a wish which was not intended to be compulsory on all political parties.
According to him, when members of the forum returned to their various parties, decisions varied as each political party had different plans to approach the process of electing a presidential candidate.
“For us in PDP, the party told the Governors that it may not go with their position because we are in opposition and in order to get it right, the party set up a committee headed by Benue Governor, Samuel Ortom, to advise it appropriately on zoning of the ticket.
“The Ortom committee, in its wisdom, recommended that zoning be jettisoned to allow all aspirants to participate in the primary to enable the best to emerge.
“The committee presented its report to the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) where it was agreed to open the presidential ticket to enable for the best hands to emerge as recommended.
“As far as we are aware, no member, including the governors or group protested the party’s decision. They all acquiesced and accepted the party’s decision on zoning.
“There was no treachery anywhere because no agreement was reached. The party’s position prevailed and delegates at the Presidential Primary voted as they wished,” he said.
Ifeajika said that long after the primaries some persons were still talking about betrayal, and wondered where the G-5 governors were when the Ortom Committee presented its report.
“Why didn’t they raise their voices against the party’s decision not to zone the ticket to any part and rise against it?
They agreed to it, participated, only to start an agitation without foundation after a candidate had emerged.
“I see the G-5 Governors agitation as a distraction and I appeal to them to sheath their sword and beat a retreat as quickly as possible to join the party’s rescue mission.
They remain very senior members of PDP and they remain an important factor because the next election is a low hanging fruit for the PDP to pick if we close ranks. We believe that Nigerians would vote for the party,” he added.
On the G-5 governors agitation for the sack of Ayu, Okowa’s spokesman said it was a constitutional matter which ought to be addressed at the appropriate time.
“In Rivers state where Wike holds sway as Governor, the Governorship candidate is from Rivers South and the Chairman of the party in the state is also from Rivers South.
“We didn’t see Wike tell the party Chairman to step aside because a governorship candidate emerged from same senatorial district with him. It becomes germane if Atiku emerges President and the party Chairman remains in office. There is no law that compels Ayu to resign because the North has produced the Presidential candidate, unless he decides to step aside on his own volition.
“One would have thought that having pursued the agitation without yielding results that they will beat a retreat but if they go ahead to endorse another candidate aside the PDP Presidential candidate, appropriate steps will be taken,” he stressed.
On Obasanjo’s endorsement of Peter Obi, he said Obasanjo merely exercised his constitutional right adding that Nigerians may not listen to him.
“You will recall that sometime ago he tore his party card and said he wants to remain a statesman. What he has done is the exercise of his constitutional rights. He was against Buhari in 2019 but he later won and that means that many Nigerians didn’t listen to him and that may also play out this time around,” he stated.
