Presidency: Southern govs betrayed me, sold out — Wike

Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, has accused some southern Peoples Democratic Party governors of betrayal following his failure to clinch the PDP presidential ticket.

Wike accused the southern governors of selling out and frustrating the collective efforts that would have secured the PDP presidential ticket by him for the South.

Governor Wike lost to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar at the party’s presidential primaries held in Abuja last Saturday.

The governor, who emerged as the runner-up in the PDP primaries, polled 237 votes, while Atiku gathered 371 votes.

However, Wike, while speaking on the development on Monday, said some PDP governors ganged up with some interest groups to derail the quest of the South to produce President Muhammadu Buhari’s successor in 2023.

He said this at a grand reception organised by the Rivers people in Port Harcourt, the state capital to welcome him back from Abuja after the PDP presidential primary election.

The governor said it was disheartening that some governors from the South, due to their inordinate ambition, could jettison the collective interest of the people they claimed to represent.

He added that it was the agreement of the southern governors that the 2023 presidency should come to the South, adding that he did not betray the agreement.

He said: “I contested in an election based on the principle and agreement with all southern governors and leaders of the South that presidency should go to the South this period.

READ ALSO: After Presidential primaries… Atiku visits Wike

“We have done our part. We never betrayed anybody because it is not in our blood to betray.

“But it is a shame to those people, some of the governors from the South, they are the people that were used to sabotage our course.

“Look at a region ganged up, then you, your region cannot gang up. You became tools to be used against the interest of your people, and you think you have won, you have lost.

“You will continue to be perpetual slaves. Rivers people, you don’t need to bother yourselves. The PDP needs us. If they say they don’t need us, they should wait,” Governor Wike was quoted as saying in a statement issued by his media aide, Kelvin Ebiri.

The governor added that Rivers State would work to ensure victory for the PDP and all its candidates in the 2023 general election.

Speaking at the event, the Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly, Ikuinyi-Owaji Ibani, described Wike as an emancipator, who had solved a particular nagging problem in Nigeria, saying that was the issue of minority question.

On his part, the PDP Chairman in Rivers State, Ambassador Desmond Akawor, commended the governor for his resilience, adding that the state and the Niger Delta were happy that he spoke for them.

The Star