There is palpable relief in the troubled People’s Democratic Party (PDP) as the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, has disowned legal moves to dethrone former Vice President Atiku Abubakar as the party’s flagbearer for next year’s presidential election.
His name had featured in court documents in Abuja, but in Port Harcourt at the inauguration of the State Assembly Quarters this Friday, he said: “Let me say and let Nigerians know that people have called me throughout this morning [saying] all kinds of things that I went to court against Atiku Abubakar. I want to say categorically that if I had reasons to go to court, I will go to court. But I didn’t go to court.
“I just want to say it for Nigerians to know. I have kept quiet. I am busy with delivering the dividends of democracy for my party to win elections in Rivers State. People are busy talking [about] how they will win elections, rather our people are busy trying to see how they will lose election. If they lose the election, nobody should call my name.
“I have told the candidate, you will win this election, you will lose this election because of people around you. Anybody who knows me know too well that if I was going to court, I would have gone to court within two weeks after the primaries because it is a pre-election matter and after two weeks, you cannot go to court.
“The legal adviser of the party called me and told me that he knows that there is mischief going on; that he knows me very well that if I am going to court, it’s not those kinds of lawyers I would have used, and I don’t even know the lawyers.
“But I want to tell the candidate; it is the candidate’s group that is doing all these things. Let the world hear; they are the ones plotting all these things, thinking that they will spoil my name. Yesterday they said that I removed all PDP’s flags from the Rivers State Government House.
“We are supposed to be talking about how you will win the election. The people around him are not doing him any favour rather they are planning how to make him not to win the election. But if that is what they wish, I wish them good luck.
“After my commissioning of projects, nobody should say Wike has started because when I start… I’ve been on my own, they are looking for trouble when there is no trouble. My own is to come out and to tell the world. Allow peace to reign.
“I didn’t go to court. I have no reason to go to court. But those of you who are plotting and put my name that I went to court for you to come out and say Wike went to court, shame will be on you. I am not talking. I am doing my work. Leave me to do my work.
“They are busy concocting every day. Social media cannot make you to win election. Election is by the people. Let those who are in Abuja with you, tell them to go home and campaign for you to win election. Leave Wike alone. Enough is enough.”
