Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State has explained why it is unlikely that former President Goodluck Jonathan support Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar in the 2023 general election.
He recalled that Atiku never backed Dr. Jonathan for his re-election bid, he rather mounted pressure on the former president to relinquish the 2015 presidential ticket of the party.
Wike further said Atiku embarrassed and humiliated Jonathan, who as a sitting President and candidate visited him in Dorchester Hotel, London, to beg him to return to the party to support his second term bid.
The governor spoke when he led his Ebonyi State counterpart, Dave Umahi, to inaugurate the Akpabu-Omudioga-Egbeda road constructed by his administration.
He said: “What I don’t like is that we forget history easily. In 2015 when Jonathan as a sitting president won his primary, Jonathan went to London in Dorchester Hotel to plead with this presidential candidate today, Atiku Abubakar, to say ‘please, my brother, come back to the party and support me.
“Do you know the condition they gave to Jonathan? That he should relinquish his ticket not to run as president of Nigeria. That was a sitting president and presidential candidate of a ruling party. They gave him that condition, telling him to relinquish that ticket so he would not run.
“When I see some people running around and talking rubbish, they forget history easily. Today, we are not saying the presidential candidate should relinquish his ticket. We are not being selfish. We are only saying since you are now the presidential candidate, let our people take chairmanship and they say they will kill me. Is it possible?”
