Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State has given reason to why he never opposed the presidential ambitions of Labour Party’s Peter Obi and his All Progressives Congress (APC) counterpart, Bola Tinubu prior to the just-concluded February 25 presidential election.
According to Wike, he is an “apostle” of power shift to the southern region of Nigeria and that was what he stood for.
Wike said this at the commissioning of Chokocho-Igbodo Road in the Etche Local Government Area of Rivers State, on Monday.
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The governor also said he owed nobody an apology for supporting the rotation of power to the south after the eight-year tenure of the incumbent, President Muhammadu Buhari, who is from the North.
Wike stressed that Section 7(3)(c) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) constitution recognised zoning and rotational presidency even though the leadership of the party contravened the provisions of the party’s regulations.
He said;
“I owe nobody any apology at all. I am one of the apostles, one of those who stood firm that power must rotate to the South. This is for equity, this is for fairness and this is for justice.
“Whether you voted for Labour, I have no problem with you. Whether you voted for APC, I have no problem with you. That is what we have argued for: that the north has had it for eight years. Therefore the south must be there for eight years.
“As far as I am concerned, anybody from south, that is my position. That is what we agreed in the Integrity Group that we must make sure that the south emerges as the next President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“Each time I went for campaign, nobody has ever heard me criticise Obi. Nobody has ever heard me criticize Asiwaju. I owe nobody any apology that people voted southern presidency.”
Tinubu was subsequently declared President-Elect by the Independent National Electoral Commission after gathering 8,794,726 votes ahead of Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party with 6,984,520votes, while Obi came in third place with 6,101,533 votes.
