I’ll Announce My Preferred Presidential Candidate In January – Wike

 

Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State, Southern Nigeria has said he will announce his preferred presidential candidate in January.

Gatekeepers News earlier reported that there has been crisis in the camp of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) after Wike lost the party’s presidential primaries to Wike.

Following this, there have been calls for Iyorchia Ayu’s resignation from his position as the national chairman of the party.

The calls, championed by Wike and his allies, are based on the grounds that the PDP presidential candidate and national chairman cannot be from the same region.

This led to the formation of the Integrity Group which included five PDP governors — Wike, Seyi Makinde of Oyo, Samuel Ortom of Benue, Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia, and Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu.

All five governors have exempted themselves from the campaign of the presidential candidate of the PDP, Atiku Abubakar for the 2023 general election.

At the inauguration of a flyover in Obi-Akpor LGA on Thursday, Wike said he will mobilise people “from state to state” for his preferred candidate from January.

The Rivers State Governor said, “From January next year, I will campaign to my people who they will vote for. So, all of you who have been suspects and have been saying all kinds of things and abusing me, wait. January has come.

“Not only will I tell them where they will vote, I will also move from state to state and [tell them] why they should vote for people I think they should vote for.

“Nothing will happen. So, all of you appearing on television [to] abuse me, don’t waste your saliva again. January will come. All those of you that tell people you have 40 shoes and 50 wristwatches, the time has come to convert those watches to votes.

“Those of you who haven’t been stable, moving from one political party to another – you move from PDP to here, you move from here back to PDP; those of you, who in 2015, you said if they vote for PDP, they are voting for insurgency, corruption, wait.

“All of us will reply to tell Nigeria the things you said, how far are they now? Is it the same PDP or a new PDP?”