Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, has lashed out at a former Jigawa State Governor, Sule Lamido, over the latter’s outburst against him.
Lamido had accused Wike of fuelling the post-presidential primary crisis rocking the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), adding that Wike alone cannot control the votes of the electorate in the South-South geopolitical zone in the 2023 general election.
The former governor, who spoke in an interview on Channels Television’s programme, Politics Today, on Tuesday, also slammed Wike over his insistence that Dr Iyorchia Ayu must resign as PDP national chairman.
He equally said the governor imposed a governorship candidate on the Rivers State chapter of the party, in spite of complaints by other aspirants.
Reacting, Governor Wike, in a statement issued on Wednesday his Special Assistant on Media, Kelvin Ebiri, said Lamido had since lost his relevance in the party, adding that relying on previous elections’ results to depict Lamido was inconsequential and of no electoral value.
Ebiri stated that Lamido plotted the defeat of the PDP in the 2015 general election, noting that the former governor’s outburst might affect the ongoing reconciliation talks and possibly cause the defeat of the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, in 2023.
He said Lamido left the party after the 2015 elections until Wike stepped in to sustain the party.
He added that the former governor was cracking the walls of unity in the party, saying no right-thinking member of the PDP would dismiss Wike’s contributions to the party.
Ebiri said: “Under Lamido’s watch, as a governor of Jigawa State in 2015, the APC governorship candidate, Mohammed Badaru Abubakar, scored a total 648,045 votes to defeat his PDP opponent, Malam Aminu Ringim, who scored a total 479, 447 votes. Worst still, in 2019, governor Abubakar polled 810,933, while the PDP candidate scored 288,356.
“Such records depict that Alhaji Lamido cannot and does not have such political following that will benefit the PDP. Those who want electoral victory for the PDP are not dampening the morale required for political offensive at APC but Alhaji Lamido is cracking the wall of unity badly.
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“Let it be told that in 2015, governor Wike, as an opposition candidate in Rivers State polled 1,029,102 votes to defeat the then ruling APC governorship candidate, Dakuku Peterside, who managed to garner a paltry 124,896 votes. And in 2019, the governor also won by landslide. These are marks of political sagacity and determination to keep PDP at a leading pedestal.
“So, as the 2023 general election beckons, we wish to advise Alhaji Lamido to redeem his battered political image by delivering Jigawa State to the PDP, if he can.”
He added: “While we cannot deny that Alhaji Lamido has an inalienable right to his personal opinion, we wish to declare that he, however, lacks the right to malign governor Wike, whose immense contributions to the sustenance of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, is not in dispute.
“It is rather appalling that at a time when concerted efforts are being made by lovers of true democracy and the unity of the party to resolve some inherent contradictions plaguing the PDP, Alhaji Lamido and his cohorts, who have since lost their relevance in the polity, are busy creating friction and schism.
“Governor Wike has never claimed to be custodian of the over 3 million votes in Rivers State. But as the leader of the PDP and good people of Rivers State, anyone who underrates the governor’s political pedigree or dares to ignore his influence in the State and beyond will be doing so at his own peril.
“We wish to remind Alhaji Lamido that governor Wike has never left anyone in doubt about his capacity to sway the voters in Rivers State in a direction that benefits the people and the state, overall. When he speaks, Rivers people will listen, no doubt.
“Perhaps, Alhaji Lamido thinks Nigerians are suffering from selective amnesia to have forgotten in a hurry, the ignoble role he and his cohorts played between 2014 and 2015, that culminated in the defeat of the PDP in 2015 general election.’’
“We hope that he is not up in such scheme again to cause a repeat of that history. Otherwise, if Alhaji Lamido has any modicum of conscience, he won’t be making disparaging comments about governor Wike, whom many have described as the pillar of the PDP since 2015.
“We wish to state without equivocation that no well-meaning member of the PDP will describe governor Wike as ‘insignificant’ in the affairs of the PDP. With all modesty, only persons plagued by schizophrenia psychosis, will ascribe any form of relevance to Alhaji Lamido, under whose leadership the PDP has woefully lost two governorship elections in Jigawa State in quick succession,” Governor’s Wike aide stated.
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