Anastasia Okechukwu Reporting
Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State has broken silence over his alleged involvement in depriving the Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate, Peter Obi of emerging victoriously in the February 25 election in the state.
Governor Wike who denied the accusations when Ohanaeze delegation that was in Rivers State confronted him over his alleged role in Peter Obi’s loss in the election, said he could not have worked against Peter Obi when he supported him during his presidential campaign in the state, not minding that he was not his party member.
He stated this on Thursday night when he hosted the National Executive Committee of ‘Ohanaeze Ndi Igbo’ Worldwide, at Government House, Port Harcourt.
According to Sahara, the transcript of the conversation between Ohanaeze delegation and Wike was made available to them on Friday by the spokesman for the Igbo Apex body.
The Vice President-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo (Abia), Dr Kingsley Chidozie, led the Ohanaeze delegation, according to the transcript, while Dr Peter Aneke spoke on behalf of the Igbo apex body.
The transcription partly reads: “Aneke wondered ‘how an Ikwere man will in good conscience, work against the Igbo in a presidential race where the candidacy of Peter Obi was a low-hanging fruit.’ He informed Wike that the ‘Igbo all over the world are aggrieved with him, especially as the alleged rigging operations are circulating on the Internet’.
“Aneke informed Wike that the Ohanaeze Ndigbo considers it a duty to confront him over the alleged widespread electoral malpractices in Rivers State against their son, Peter Obi. He expressed deep sadness that ‘Obi would win in the metropolitan Lagos, Abuja, and several other places in the North only to record so low in Rivers State’. Aneke added that the ‘delegation is on a fact-finding (mission); and that both the Igbo elders and youths are eager to know why he should go the extra mile to pull Obi down in Rivers State’.
“In his own remarks, Governor Wike expressed surprise that the Ohanaeze were on a fact-finding (mission); but he would however explain his roles in the last presidential election.
“Wike explained that the Southern Governors Forum first met at Asaba, Delta State and agreed that ‘power must shift to the South after President Muhammadu Buhari; and that they also met at Enugu in September 2021 to reaffirm their position for a power shift to the South’.
“Wike stated that throughout their meetings, ‘the issue of presidency to the South-East was never on the table. And that throughout his political adventure in this dispensation, he tried as much as possible to maintain the position by the Southern governors’.
“Wike expressed disgust that ‘during the PDP presidential primaries, several well-known people of the South-East betrayed and sabotaged the Southern interest by voting for the Northern candidates for presidency’.
“He added that his unalloyed commitment to the South motivated him to ‘provide logistics for Peter Obi when he was in the Rivers State for presidential campaigns and that he refused to provide even a campaign ground for Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the PDP on principles’.
“The governor stated that ‘what is circulating on the social media is the handwork of the Wike adversaries’. For instance, the ‘full Audio of Governor Wike Caught on Tape Arranging Bribe for INEC Officials’ and published by an online medium, ‘has been on YouTube since December 16, 2016’.