THE contention trailing a remark credited to a former deputy national chairman (South) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and one of the aspirants, who withdrew from the race citing insult to the Yoruba race by the Rivers State governor, Nyesom Wike, Chief Olabode George, seemed to have been put to lay on Saturday, as the representative denied regularly offending the Yoruba.
The representative, who talked on sidelines of the national tradition, kept up that he didn’t affront anybody thus there was no compelling reason to apologize for anything.
Wike additionally denied suggestions that he was attempting to seize the procedure, saying that he had the privilege to help any competitor as a representative and a delegate, encouraging that individuals must build up the soul of sportsmanship.
“When people want something, you hear all sorts of stories. Someone comes to you that he wants your support and you do not give him because you have someone else you are supporting, then he will say you are imposing and all that. If you had supported him, it would not be imposition. What we have here is not a case of imposition; if it had been imposition, the party would have come out to say only aspirant A or B should be chairman. It has never happened in the history of the national convention in PDP, where many aspirants are jostling for the same position. So where is the imposition?
“We must learn to be good winners and good losers; you cannot expect that because you have gone to delegates to convince them, then they must all support you. They will listen to everybody and at the end of the day, they will make up their minds,” Wike said.
The Rivers representative additionally countered the intimation that governors chose on the stage of the gathering had captured the procedure by support a chairmanship wannabe, noticing that there were just 11 governors out of 36 states and the Federal Capital, those, if the governors had impact, it would just be over their 11 states.
“What did I say about the Yoruba? They told me that the South-West region has never produced the national chairman of the party and that giving it to them would change the fortune of the party in the region and I told them that the South-West too has never produced the national chairman. I also asked them that when the South-West produced the president, what was the fortune of the party and how would national chairman of the party change the fortune of the party in the region. That was what I said. So, how did I insult anybody?,” Wike said.
Likewise talking amid the tradition, the PDP governorship contender for the 2015 race in Lagos State and one of the chairmanship hopefuls, Mr Jimi Agbaje, said he pulled back from the race to light up the odds of the South-West.
He stated, he couldn’t put forth any remark on George’s announcement that Wike offended the Yoruba, since he didn’t watch or tune in to the senator’s meeting.
In a similar vein, another chairmanship competitor, Chief Raymond Dokpesi, who pledged to remain in the race till the very end since he had a place with a gathering that trusted that things must be done any other way in the PDP instead of a gathering that “needs to stay in the solace of the rooms to manage things,” said he didn’t screen the meeting in which Wike offended the Yoruba.
Dokpesi, in an accused meeting of the grapple of the TV slot airing the tradition procedures, kept up that the chairmanship competitors that pulled back from the race did as such for various reasons, taking note of that with what happened, it demonstrated that majority rule government was on trial.
