Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State has informed the people of the state that he will soon reveal to them the presidential candidate to vote for in the forthcoming election as against casting their votes for the Peoples Democratic Party flagbearer, Atiku Abubakar.
Wike is leading five governors of PDP who have refused to support the candidacy of Atiku over the continued stay of Iyorchia Ayu as the chairman of the party.
Wike and his colleagues in the so called G5 are demanding that Ayu should vacate office with the emergence of Atiku who is from the Northern part of the country like him as the party’s presidential candidate.
They want a Southerner to take over as the chairman of the party.
But Ayu who was elected late 2021 for a four-year-tenure had insisted that he will run out his term of office.
He has the support of Atiku and as a result Wike and his colleagues in G5 have continued to boycott the presidential campaign rallies of PDP.
Wike, while inaugurating the Rukpokwu-Rumuapu-Izo-Ogbodo Igwuruta Link Road Rumuapu community in Obio-Akpor Local Government Area on Tuesday indicated that he is still not ready to back off from opposition to Atiku’s candidacy because of Ayu, according to a statement by Kelvin Ebiri, his Special Assistant on Media.
The governor said because of the performance of his administration in terms of provision of critical infrastructure, Rivers people are already home PDP.
He then charged the electorate to cast their votes PDP gubernatorial candidate as well National Assembly to State Assembly candidates while the decision on which presidential candidate they will vote for will be taken later.
“Then the other one (presidential), I will come and tell you where we will vote. These ones (governorship, Senatorial, Reps and State Assembly candidates) I mentioned now, make sure you come and vote for them. Very soon, we’ll meet in our houses and a take decision where we are going to.”
Governor Wike mocked governorship candidates of other parties in the State, who he said are not in touch with the people at the grassroot.
According to him, these candidates, he stated, do not also have any follower, no traditional or political opinion leaders who can help galvanise the support of the electorate for them.
Such candidates, governor Wike noted, are only desperately going about collecting money from people in the guise of preparing for election when they know that they are not in the race to win the election.