Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, LP, in the February 25 elections, has claimed Rivers Governor Nyesom Wike worked against him in the State.
Obi, who spoke to Arise TV on Monday, March 13, 2023, also alleged foul play in the presidential election results in Rivers, claiming that he won in the State.
In Rivers, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress, APC, won with 231,591 votes while the LP scored 175,071 votes.
Obi said people who voted for him did not do so on the basis of ethnicity, saying those who chose knew what he stood for.
He added that he even got more votes from Lagos indigenes than those referred to as “visitors.”
“In the South-East, it is a similar situation, people know me, people know what I stand for, people know I have kept my promises. People know I’ve kept to what I have said.
“It is a simple thing, people go about and say, oh! he got votes in Lagos because of the Igbos and I ask how many Igbos live in Lagos? I got more votes from indigenes in Lagos than those who you can call visitors.
“Are the Igbos in Nasarawa, are the Igbos in Plateau, are the Igbos in Abuja?
“In Rivers, where you know that the Governor came out against me and everything, I still… If the real votes of Rivers were counted, I won. I had over 50 something per cent of the vote.
“The other two parties were sharing the others.”
‘Peter Obi Left PDP Because Of Northern Born-To-Rule Politicians’ – Wike Denies Role In Saga
Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State has claimed that former Anambra State Governor, Mr Peter Obi dumped the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, for the Labour Party, LP, because of moves by some politicians in the PDP to make sure power remained in the north.
Wike stated this when he hosted, on a courtesy visit, the National Executive Committee of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide at the Government House, Port Harcourt, on Thursday, March 9, 2023.
The governor said he was a major proponent of a Southern president, insisting that Obi decided to leave the PDP when former Governor of Jigawa State, Sule Lamido, told him (Obi) that power would continue in the north this year.
He said: “I supported that power must come to the south. When [Peter] Obi came here, I gave him all the logistics, vehicles, and other support and paid for the stadium, but some other persons applied and I refused. You should know me too well by now.
“Obi was running with us. I knew when Obi left. He was principled and he said he couldn’t stand it, people should say the truth.
“He went to see Sule Lamido in Jigawa, not in Dutse, but in a village that will take you more than four or five hours drive from Dutse, the capital.
“You know what he told Obi? He did not tell him that look, you came late and I have chosen somebody. He said it is the north that would produce the next president. That was how Obi left [the PDP] saying why is he wasting time. Ask him. That is how he left PDP.”
Source: The Nation
