2023: Why I Visited Gov Wike’s Residence – Atiku

Atiku Abubakar, the 2023 presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has revealed why he visited the residence of Governor Nyesom Wike, his nearest challenger in the just concluded presidential primary of the PDP.

Governor Wike was giving Atiku a run for his money at the primary election until Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tambuwal, who was one of the top three contenders, came to the former vice president’s rescue by stepping down and asking his supporters to vote for him.

Atiku received 371 votes out of the 764 accredited ballots while Wike got 237 votes at the election that was held on Saturday at the Moshood Abiola Stadium, Abuja.

In a post he shared on Facebook on Monday, Atiku said his visit to Wike was to ensure that every stakeholder is brought on board to boost the party’s chances of emerging victorious in the 2023 presidential election.

He wrote: “In continuation of my commitment to bring everyone on board in ensuring that the PDP stands as one united party, earlier today, I visited His Excellency Gov Nyseom (sic) Wike at his Abuja residence. This is a continuous process.”

Meanwhile, there have been reports that the former vice president may consider running with Wike as his vice at the polls.

A group, PDP Frontiers, had after the primary election urged Atiku to consider Wike as his running mate, saying “As for Governor Wike, an embodiment of formidable courage, unwavering party loyalty and pragmatic resilience without whom PDP wouldn’t have recovered itself after many had taken opportunities to exit and even fought with the ruling APC to destroy PDP.”

The group added, “We note too, the exceptional treachery of Gov Wike’s former ally – the greatest and exceptional beneficiary of his resources and support in the 2019 presidential primaries who became the greatest facilitator of Wike’s loss in this year’s presidential primaries.”

However, Governor Wike had ahead of the primary election said he was not running for the position to negotiate for the position of vice president.

“I’m not coming out to negotiate to be vice to anyone, I’m coming out to contest for the number one position in the country,” Wike was quoted to have told PDP leaders during his consultative visit to Benin, Edo State.