By Emegwoako C. Paschal
Rivers Governor Nyesom Wike accused his party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, of appointing enemies of the state to his campaign council on Monday.
Wike was speaking in Port Harcourt at the launch of the PDP’s Rivers campaign for the 2023 elections.
He was reacting to controversies surrounding the absence of photographs of Atiku and PDP Chairman Iyorchia Ayu from Rivers PDP campaign vehicles.
The Rivers State Governor stated that because Atiku did not consult him when selecting members of his Rivers campaign council, he will not campaign for him.
Some have questioned me as to why they noticed photos of the party chairman and the presidential candidate in our campaign vehicles, he said. “What are you talking about?” I asked.
“The presidential candidate entered my state and chose members of the presidential campaign council without consulting the governor of the state.” So they said they didn’t need me to campaign for them, and they didn’t want Rivers residents to campaign for them. Would you put yourself through it?
“Would you go and push yourself if someone said he doesn’t want you?” You sit down, do what you can, and that’s the end of it. I’ve never seen anyone come to a state like Rivers State and pick those who are the state’s enemies without our help. That’s exactly what they did. In their campaign council, who is our nominee? Is there anyone here?
“They don’t want us to run for office for them.” Candidates for governor and senator asked us to campaign for them. So we’re here to advocate for them. They will come and tell us if they want us to campaign for them.
“If they think we’re important, they’ll come and meet us and say, ‘I’m running for office, can you come and support us,’ but no one has come to tell us.” Let me state unequivocally that nobody can initiate the state,” Wike said.
