River State Governor, Nyesom Wike, has said the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) needs performing governors like him to get the needed votes for the party to win the presidency in 2023.
TheCable reported that he made the statement on Wednesday, September 27, at the unveiling of Rivers State University’s Emohua campus.
REPORTERS AT LARGE recalls that the Rivers state governor’s comment is against the backdrop crisis rocking the PDP since May when former Vice President Atiku Abubakar became the party’s presidential candidate.
After losing out in the two races, Wike and his allies demanded that Iyorchia Ayu, PDP national chairman, step down as a precondition for resolving the crisis. Ayu, however, said he wouldn’t resign, escalating the crisis.
On Wednesday, Governor Wike said no one can prevent him from speaking on the happenings in the party. “That is why I am telling the people there, ‘look, it cannot work; you can’t take everything. If you take everything, it will purge you. So, better do the right thing now’,” he said.
“Don’t sit there and think that you can muzzle me and you can do everything; you can manipulate anything. You can think you have the number to make sure you take everything, but the time is coming when you will account for it.
“If any PDP state is not doing well, don’t think you will be voted for because APC is not doing well. If in PDP state, for example, if in Rivers state, we didn’t do well, then you’ll say because APC did not do well at the national level, then the people will vote for us.
“They’ll tell you ‘PDP, you didn’t do well in Rivers state’. People don’t understand that. And that is why the party should respect us and know that we are the ones campaigning for the party; we have what to use to campaign.”
Also speaking at the event, Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo state, one of Wike’s allies, said he and his colleagues will continue to fight for their “space” in the party.
