2023 election is fight to finish, Wike vows

Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, has said the 2023 elections is a fight to finish.

The governor, who is the arrow head of the Peoples Democratic Party governors opposed to Atiku Abubakar, the party’s Presidential Candidate, said this during a rally of the PDP in Rivers.

At the rally held in Ikwerre Local Government Area of the state, Wike asked Rivers residents to vote for all candidates of the party aside from Atiku.

He said the G-5, a group of aggrieved PDP governors, is finalising talks on the presidential candidate to work for in February election.

Wike said, “Now, it is one man, one vote. All the votes must be in one basket from governorship to House of Assembly. The other one we are concluding. When we conclude, you will be told.

“Nobody should intimidate you. Nobody should tell you any story. We are free born of this country. We are not second-class citizens. Nobody can tell us anything. I dare them. Let anybody do any funny thing, We’ll tell them we are from Rivers State.

“This election we are going for is a fight to finish and we are very ready. We are waiting for those strangers, those people who can sell their state for a pot of porridge, we are waiting for them to come back. Do they have anything to offer?”

The G-5 governors have since been romancing with presidential candidates of the All Progressives Congress, Ahmed Bola Tinubu and that of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, while still in the PDP.

But speaking when he appeared on a Channels Television programme earlier in the week, Phrank Shaibu, Special Assistant on Public Communications to Atiku, played down the impact of Wike in the forthcoming presidential election.

Shaibu said Wike has just a vote in the presidential election, adding that Atiku had moved on with his campaign programmes ahead of the February election.

He said, “The interesting thing is that our campaign has moved on. We said in the beginning, it’s about Nigeria, it’s not just about the PDP. Atiku Abubakar does not have a personal problem with him [Wike]. I read in the media a few hours ago when he said ‘we’ve almost closed the window of negotiation with the PDP.’

“Common, you may choose to close the window but the door is still there because my candidate, Atiku Abubakar, is not a criminal. So, he does not need to pass through the window, he comes through the door.

“The issue is PDP is one big family…It’s not about Governor Wike. Governor Wike is just one governor, one member of the PDP and he has only one vote so also are the other four governors who are members of the G-5 governors.

“So, we look forward to a situation where we will all come together and if they join the train because the train is moving and we are cruising at a very good altitude, it could be a day to the election, it could be one month to the election, it could be 39 days to the election and they decide to join the team and work with the team, it’s all good and fine.”