Suit Against Atiku:Wike Accuses Unnamed PDP Governors Close To Atiku of sabotage

Rivers State governor, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike has accused some Peoples Democratic Party, PDP governors aligned to Atiku Abubakar along with some other party chieftains of fanning what he Friday described as the mischief that he went to court to upturn the mandate of the PDP presidential candidate.

Affirming that he did not go to court, Wike said the folks around Atiku were the masterminds of such plots including the claim on Thursday that he had ordered the removal of PDP flags from Government House, Port Harcourt.

Governor Wike made the clarification at the inauguration of the Rivers State House of Assembly Quarters, which was performed by the Speaker, House of Nigeria’s Representatives, Reps. Femi Gbajabiamila in Port Harcourt on Friday.

“People have called me throughout this morning and said all kinds of things that I went to court against Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. I want to say categorically, if I have a reason of going to court, I will go to court, but I didn’t go to court

“Yesterday too, they said I removed all PDP flags at Rivers State Government House. But I just have to say these things for Nigerians to know that I have kept quiet, and being busy delivering dividends of democracy for my party to win election in Rivers State.

“But I want to tell the candidate, it is the candidate’s group that are doing all these things. Let the world hear, they are the ones plotting all these things, thinking that they will spoil my name, you cannot.

Governor Wike explained that if he wanted legal action against the outcome of the PDP presidential primary, it would have been prosecuted within two weeks after the primary, when such pre-election matters are entertained.

“I didn’t go to court, I have no reason to go to court. But those of you who are plotting and saying that I went to court instead, for you to have come out now to say Wike went to go court, I say shame on you. Shame will be on all of you.”

“I have told the candidate, you will win or lose this election because of people around you. Anybody who knows me know too well that if I was going to court, I would have gone to court within two weeks after the primary because it is a pre-election matter and after two weeks, you can’t go to court.

The legal adviser of the party called me and I told him that he knows that there is mischief going on. But that he knows me very well, if I’m going to court, it is not those kinds of lawyers that I would have used and I don’t even know the lawyers.”

Governor Wike noted that there is a bigger challenge ahead, and it is how to win the 2023 general election for the PDP. This concern should be the focus of all true lovers of PDP who want electoral victory.

“Election is about the people and by the people. Let those in Abuja with you (Atiku), tell them to go home and campaign for you to win election. Leave Wike alone, enough is enough.”

Governor Wike recalled that during the 2019 general elections, the same people claiming to love the PDP more now in South-South, sabotaged the party’s winning chances in the region.

He lamented that instead of them, particularly the governors, to plot on how to win the 2023 election, they are joining in wasting the time plotting accusations that they would level on him.

When I see people talking about PDP today, I say to myself what is going on in this world. In the South-South, they all betrayed us. President Muhammadu Buhari wouldn’t have won the 2019 election because he won’t have had the spread.

“But all the States in the South-South made Buhari to have 25 percent. It was only Rivers State that did not give Buhari 25 percent, I am challenging anybody on it.”

Governor Wike said the action of those persons who gave President Buhari the winning margin in 2019 invariably also frustrated the winning chances of the PDP candidate then.

The Rivers State governor pointed to how he had urged Alhaji Atiku to look carefully at the governors around him and understand why they worked against his victory in 2019.

“Today, I see people talk about PDP. When we were supposed to have won election in PDP under Alhaji Atiku. Rivers State gave the highest votes, Rivers State gave the highest support in terms of logistics too. Let anybody come and contradict me.”

“I told Atiku the other day, I said to him, all these governors that you think they are working with you, what happened in 2019. Nobody wants to say the truth.

I have said it, everybody, go to your State and deliver. It is operation deliver your State. It is not to just talk. It is not to stay in Abuja. I don’t stay in Abuja, I don’t sleep there,” Wike said in a challenge to rival PDP governors to deliver Atiku in the presidential election.

Governor Wike said it was imperative for him to have invited Gbajabiamila who, as a friend, had supported Rivers State government to get the refund from the Paris club. Part of the money, governor Wike noted has been expended on the Rivers State Assembly Quarters.

Inaugurating the project, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Reps. Femi Gbajabiamila noted that housing facility will definitely provide conducive residences for members of the Rivers State House of Assembly.