Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, has taken a swipe at a former Governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi, for quitting the Peoples Democratic Party a few days before the presidential primary of the opposition party.
Wike, who is running for president on the platform of the PDP where Obi was also an aspirant, said the ex-Anambra governor had not won an election since he left the All Progressives Grand Alliance, the party under which Obi became governor.
Wike, while featuring on Politics Today, a current affairs programme on Channels Television, on Thursday, expressed doubts about Obi getting the presidential ticket of another party.
Obi had on Wednesday resigned his PDP membership to the surprise of many. The presidential aspirant was rumoured to be heading to the Social Democratic Party.
Reacting to Obi’s exit, Wike said, “It is not surprising to me. That is what I have always said; when I go round to say ‘you (PDP) have to be very careful.’ Those of us who have joined the party since 1998, who have never left this party because this party is in our blood, it doesn’t matter what problems we may have in the party we have to be inside it to settle the problems.
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“So, Peter Obi leaving the party is not surprising to me. I know and he knows that there was no way he would have won the presidential primary. Forget about what his (campaign) DG, Doyin Okupe, said. How would he have won? I went to Anambra and told them (delegates) that, ‘don’t waste your vote.’ Since Peter Obi left APGA then as a governor, he has never won election. That is not even the issue.
“The issue is that there must be integrity, there must be character. How can a man who had gone to all the states to tell them how he had been a trader, how his family has been trading, how everybody should support him, how he wore one (pair of) shoe(s), how he did not allow anybody to carry his bag, and all those things. Three days to the primary, he said he had left the party.”
Wike noted that he read on social media that Obi planned to join a former Governor of Kano State, Rabi’u Kwankwaso, another presidential aspirant, in the New Nigeria People’s Party. He said the ex-Anambra governor might end up being a running mate to Kwankwaso.
“Integrity; character is very important in whatever you are doing,” the governor stated.
Wike also stated that he remained the presidential aspirant to beat in the PDP, adding that he was the only candidate that the party could field to defeat the All Progressives Congress.
