2023: Atiku travels to London, holds secret meeting with Wike, others

.Lamido, others caused PDP defeat in 2015, says Rivers Gov

The presidential candidate of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, has flown to the United Kingdom, in a bid to resolve his rift with the governor of Rivers state, Nyesom Wike.

TheCable reports that sources close to Atiku, claim he is billed to meet with the Wike on Thursday.

“The PDP presidential candidate headed for London Wednesday after arriving Paris yesterday. He is billed to meet with Wike tomorrow in an attempt to resolve the issues between them,” a source said.

Also, associates close to the PDP presidential candidate are not happy with the way in which Sule Lamido, former governor of Jigawa, and Babangida Aliyu, former governor of Niger, have criticised Wike and they want Abubakar to call them to order, another insider said.

In an interview with Channels Television on Tuesday, Lamido said: “We should forget about Wike.”
“Wike is an individual, I don’t think because he is a governor there he has control and monopoly over the peoples of Rivers,” the former Jigawa governor had said.

Abubakar’s desperate move to resolve the issues between him and Wike came a day after Bola Tinubu, presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), met with the Rivers governor in Paris, France.

Samuel Ortom, governor of Benue; Seyi Makinde of Oyo, Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia, and other PDP stalwarts loyal to the Rivers governor also attended the meeting

Meanwhile,Rivers state governor Nyesom Wike has taken a swipe at Alhaji Sule Lamido, the former governor of Jigawa state accusing him and those he described as his cohorts as responsible for the defeat of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP by the APC in 2015.

Lamido had Tuesday advised the PDP presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar to totally ignore Wike as he doesn’t control the votes in Rivers state.

But Wike in a statement by his media aide Kelvin Ebiri said Nigerians are not in a hurry to forget the ignoble role played by Lamido and others in the downfall of PDP in 2015.
The statement read: “We have observed with disgust the disdainful remarks made by the former governor of Jigawa State, Alhaji Sule Lamido about Rivers State governor, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, during his recent interview on Channels television.

“While, we cannot deny that Alhaji Lamido has an inalienable right to his personal opinion, we wish to declare that he, however, lacks the right to malign governor Wike, whose immense contributions to the sustenance of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, is not in dispute.

“It is rather appalling that at a time when concerted efforts are being made by lovers of true democracy and the unity of the party, to resolve some inherent contradictions plaguing the PDP, Alhaji Lamido and his cohorts, who have since lost their relevance in the polity, are busy creating friction and schism.

“Governor Wike, has never claimed to be custodian of the over 3 million votes in Rivers State. But as the leader of the PDP and good people of Rivers State, anyone who underrates the governor’s political pedigree or dares to ignore his influence in the State and beyond, will be doing so at his own peril.

“We wish to remind Alhaji Lamido that governor Wike has never left anyone in doubt about his capacity to sway the voters in Rivers State in a direction that benefits the people and the State, in the overall. When he speaks, Rivers people will listen, no doubt.

“Perhaps, Alhaji Lamido thinks Nigerians are suffering from selective amnesia to have forgotten in a hurry, the ignoble role he and his cohorts played between 2014 and 2015, that culminated in the defeat of the PDP in 2015 general election.

“We hope that he is not up in such scheme again to cause a repeat of that history. Otherwise, if Alhaji Lamido has any modicum of conscience, he won’t be making disparaging comments about governor Wike, whom many have described as the pillar of the PDP since 2015.

“We wish to state without equivocation that no well meaning member of the PDP will describe governor Wike as ‘insignificant’ in the affairs of the PDP.  With all modesty, only persons plagued by schizophrenia psychosis, will ascribe any form of relevance to Alhaji Lamido, under whose leadership the PDP has woefully lost two governorship elections in Jigawa State in quick succession.

“Under Lamido’s watch, as a governor of Jigawa State in 2015, the APC governorship candidate, Mohammed Badaru Abubakar, scored a total 648,045 votes to defeat his PDP opponent, Malam Aminu Ringim, who scored a total 479, 447 votes. Worst still, in 2019, governor Abubakar polled 810,933, while the PDP candidate scored 288,356.

“Such records depict that Alhaji Lamido cannot and does not have such political following that will benefit the PDP. Those who want electoral victory for the PDP are not dampening the morale required for political offensive at APC, but Alhaji Lamido is cracking the wall of unity badly.

“Let it be told that in 2015, governor Wike, as an opposition candidate in Rivers State polled 1,029,102 votes to defeat the then ruling APC governorship candidate, Dakuku Peterside, who managed to garner  a paltry 124,896 votes. And in 2019, the governor also won by landslide. These are marks of political sagacity and determination to keep PDP at a leading pedestal.

“So, as the 2023 general elections beckons, we wish to advise Alhaji Lamido to redeem his battered political image by delivering Jigawa State to the PDP, if he can.