I never promised to announce my preferred presidential candidate publicly

The Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, has said that he never promised to publicly announce his preferred presidential candidate for the February 25 election.

Wike is a leading member of the G-5 governors, a group of five Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governors at loggerheads with the national leadership of the party over the continued stay of Iyorchia Ayu as national chairman.

The governors have remained defiant that the national chairman and presidential candidate cannot hail from the same region of the country.

The other four governors are Samuel Ortom of Benue, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu, Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia and Seyi Makinde of Oyo.

The G-5 governors have refused to campaign for the PDP presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar on the grounds that there must be equity, fairness, and justice.

Wike had promised to make his preferred candidate known in January, which ended yesterday without any public announcements to that effect.

A former governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers, Dakuku Peterside, on Tuesday, challenged Wike to name his preferred presidential candidate.

Reacting to expectations for his announcement, Wike said, “You have the guts to tell me I should name my presidential candidate. Are we at the same level? Failure and success, are they the same?”

“Look at the man who is always failing every day. He does not understand the activities of G5. I have told most people who don’t know, G5 that we’re fighting is like guerilla warfare. The more you look, the less you see.

“I never told anybody one day, I will bring a camera and announce to you this is who will go. I said I will tell Rivers people the candidate they will support. I did not tell you the method of saying it. I did not tell you I will bring live coverage and say it. But Rivers people know.”

He described Dakuku, who lost the 2015 and 2019 governorship elections, as a “small boy”.

“Look at this small boy whom I flogged in 2015. I don’t know where they say he comes from – is it Abia or Opobo side, which of the areas? Envy! I flogged him out in 2015.

“He has not recovered from that. He thought they would give him a ticket in 2019, but he didn’t get [it]. They sent him to be NIMASA. Ask him, what did he bring for Rivers people?

“You have a position, you cannot help your people, and you’re coming out to open your mouth, simply because you didn’t get [the ticket] and they did not give you a second term to be DG of NIMASA,” Wike said.