Wike insists: ‘I must provide logistics support for Peter Obi’
Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State says he has no regret to have pledged “logistics support” for the campaigns of Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate, Peter Obi in the state.
Wike said this on Friday night at a banquet organised by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Rivers for the PDP G5 governors who are in Port Harcourt for the party’s state-level campaign flag-off on Saturday.
The Rivers governor had on Thursday made the pledge to Obi, who commissioned the Nkpolu-Oroworokwo Flyover in Port Harcourt, the state capital.
Wike, a PDP chieftain, had also said Obi, a former governor of Anambra State, has all the characteristics to lead Nigeria.
The Rivers governor has since attracted criticisms from certain quarters for his support for Obi at the expense of his party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar.
However, on Friday night, Wike said, “They said I said I’m supporting Obi, I have no regret to say: Obi is a former governor, if he is coming to Rivers State to campaign, I will give him logistics support, I will give him security.
“A former governor? Should I say I will not give him vehicles? I will not give him security? I won’t do that; I must give him logistics support.”
The former minister, however, said Labour Party can’t get any of the seats in the state in next year’s election.
Wike also challenged his counterparts in the Niger Delta zone to account for the huge sums of monies received by them as backlog for the 13% oil derivation since 1999, which was approved and paid by President Muhammadu Buhari.
The governor told attendees at the banquet that while he can point to the projects executed by his administration with the monies in Rivers, some of his colleagues cannot show any proof.
For months, Wike and four other PDP governors have demanded the resignation of Iyorchia Ayu as PDP national chairman as a precondition to support Atiku.
While Wike and his allies have not been seen to campaign for Atiku, it is not clear whether they will support Obi, or Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the contest for Aso Rock’s top job which has been described by analysts and keen observers as a three-horse race.
