Five aggrieved governors of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, known as the G5 on Saturday flagged off the party’s state-level campaigns in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital.
Governor Nyesom Wike (Rivers) hosted his brother governors – Seyi Makinde (Oyo), Samuel Ortom (Rivers), Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia), and Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Enugu) at the Adokiye Amiesimaka Stadium, the campaign venue.
The five governors donned black trousers, black hats, and white Etibor outfits synonymous with the Niger Delta zone. Members of the party also filled the stadium to the brim with PDP paraphernalia.
The G5 has been consistent in its demand that Benue-born Iyorchia Ayu steps down as PDP national chairman for “fairness and justice”, saying northerners should be the party’s chair and presidential candidate.
Both Ayu and the party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar (from Adamawa State) were conspicuously absent at the campaign flag-off.
The campaign was flagged off for PDP candidates in Rivers contesting the National Assembly, State Assembly and Governorship seats.
The symbolic handing over of party flags to the candidates was performed by the PDP Deputy National Chairman (South), Taofeek Arapaja, who graced the event alongside the state’s chairman, Desmond Akawor; and former governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose.
Arapaja, who presented the party’s flags to PDP governorship candidate, Siminialayi Fubara, said the party will give 100% support to all candidates from Rivers.
‘Forgive me for helping re-elect Obaseki’ – Wike Apologises To Oshiomhole
Governor Nyesom Wike of River State on Wednesday, November 16, 2022, apologised to former National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Adams Oshiomhole, for supporting the re-election of Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State in September 2020.
Wike tendered the apology to Oshiomhole at the inauguration of the Rumuepirikom Flyover in the Obio-Akpor Local Government Area of the state which the ex-APC chairman commissioned.
According to Wike, he has learnt and the past should remain in the past.
“I use this opportunity to apologise to you. I came to Edo State to make sure your candidate didn’t win election. I said you won’t win and you didn’t win. That assignment has been done and we now know who is who,” Wike told a smiling Oshiomhole.
“We are now friends, let bygones be bygones,” Wike, a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) strongman told the ex-APC national chairman.
“I want to sincerely apologise to you. Each time you learn. People will praise you when you do for them. When you say, they are wrong, they begin to say all sorts of things.
“I’m sure those of them in my party before cannot do anything without Wike but because I said let the right thing be done, let agreement be agreement, I have now become an enemy. These are people who are praising me morning and night,” he maintained, noting that he stands on equity, fairness and justice.
Politics Is Not War — Oshiomhole
In his speech, Oshiomhole lauded Wike for the many “beautiful projects” in Rivers, saying results don’t lie.
According to him, executive exchanges have a way of communicating to the people that political divide is not war.
“I listened to you (Wike) attentively and you said Peter Obi is coming tomorrow. I want to congratulate you for that because I also invited Peter Obi when I was governor and those executive exchanges have a way of communicating to our people that political divide is not war,” Oshiomhole stated.
“I also invited governors from other states to Edo the last one week before my tenure as you said, for them to see what I was able to do.
“I promise that when I get back to Abuja, I will use my mouth to talk what my mouth saw. The flyover I saw is not a culvert. There are people who commissioned culverts and said they were flyovers but what I am seeing here is a beautiful flyover which you will see anywhere in the world,” he added.
Source: ChannelsTV
