Atiku: You Left PDP For Me To Repair, Wike Replies Lamido

Rivers State governor, Nyesom Wike, has taken a swipe at the former Governor of Jigawa State, Sule Lamido, saying he alongside the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Atiku Abubakar, as well as others left the party when they were most needed.

The govenor added that if others like him had left the party, nothing would have been left for anyone to return to even as he described Lamido as losing political relevance in the country and should therefore remain in the back seat.

The governor who has been out of the country was responding to Lamido’s interview on Tuesday night, where the former Jigawa State Governor said Wike was not in control of politics in Rivers State and should be left alone instead of being placated.

Lamido had also noted during the Channels TV Politics Today interview, that no one offended the govenor that will require making amends even as he said people in Rivers State were wise voters that won’t follow Wike’s orders.

Wike, who has thrown the presidential bid of the party into disarray, took exception to that on Wednesday through a statement issued by his media aide, Kelvin Ebiri, saying Lamido was hell bent to increase the crisis in the party instead of allowing peace to reign.

The governor said, “We have observed with disgust the disdainful remarks made by the former governor of Jigawa State, Alhaji Sule Lamido about Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, during his recent interview on Channels television.

“While we cannot deny that Alhaji Lamido has an inalienable right to his personal opinion, we wish to declare that he, however, lacks the right to malign Governor Wike, whose immense contributions to the sustenance of the Peoples Democratic Party are not in dispute,” Wike said.

Describing Lamido’s position as appalling, he said at a time when concerted efforts are being made by lovers of true democracy and the unity of the party, to resolve some inherent contradictions plaguing the PDP, Lamido and his cohorts, who have since lost their relevance in the polity, are busy creating friction and schism.

The governor pointed out that, “As the leader of the PDP and good people of Rivers State, anyone who underrates the governor’s political pedigree or dares to ignore his influence in the state and beyond will be doing so at his own peril.

“We wish to remind Alhaji Lamido that Governor Wike has never left anyone in doubt about his capacity to sway the voters in Rivers State in a direction that benefits the people and the state, in overall.

“When he speaks, Rivers people will listen, no doubt. Perhaps, Alhaji Lamido thinks Nigerians are suffering from selective amnesia to have forgotten in a hurry, the ignoble role he and his cohorts played between 2014 and 2015, that culminated in the defeat of the PDP in the 2015 general election.”

Atiku alongside some governors and senior members of the party had left the PDP prior to 2015 election joining the APC in a triumvirate alliance that later became a quadruple in 2014.

The former Vice President unsuccessfully sought the ticket of the All Progressives Congress, APC, losing to current president, Muhammadu Buhari.

He however returned to the PDP ahead of the 2019 election where he got the ticket of the party after serious horse trading and pleas to Wike and his camp. Wike had preferred his then political ally, Aminu Tambuwal, Governor of Sokoto State, who in May abandoned him to help Atiku to victory.

Tambuwal had also exited the PDP and returned alongside Atiku, Bukola Saraki, former governor of Kwara State who was then a senator.

While touting his loyalty to the party as an achievement for others like Atiku and Lamido, who often defect and return to contest, he reminded the former Jigawa State Governor that, “We hope that he is not up in such scheme again to cause a repeat of that history. Otherwise, if Alhaji Lamido has any modicum of conscience, he won’t be making disparaging comments about governor Wike, whom many have described as the pillar of the PDP since 2015″

Wike, who on Tuesday held political meeting with the presidential candidate of the APC, Bola Tinubu, in London added that, “We wish to state without equivocation that no well-meaning member of the PDP will describe governor Wike as ‘insignificant’ in the affairs of the PDP.

“With all modesty, only persons plagued by schizophrenia psychosis will ascribe any form of relevance to Alhaji Lamido, under whose leadership the PDP has woefully lost two governorship elections in Jigawa State in quick succession.

“Under Lamido’s watch, as a governor of Jigawa State in 2015, the APC governorship candidate, Mohammed Badaru Abubakar, scored a total 648,045 votes to defeat his PDP opponent, Malam Aminu Ringim, who scored a total 479, 447 votes. Worst still, in 2019, governor Abubakar polled 810,933, while the PDP candidate scored 288,356.

“Such records depict that Alhaji Lamido cannot and does not have such political following that will benefit the PDP. Those who want electoral victory for the PDP are not dampening the morale required for a political offensive at APC, but Alhaji Lamido is cracking the wall of unity badly.

“Let it be told that in 2015, governor Wike, as an opposition candidate in Rivers State polled 1,029,102 votes to defeat the then ruling APC governorship candidate, Dakuku Peterside, who managed to garner a paltry 124,896 votes.

“And in 2019, the governor also won by landslide. These are marks of political sagacity and determination to keep PDP at a leading pedestal.

“So, as the 2023 general elections beckon, we wish to advise Alhaji Lamido to redeem his battered political image by delivering Jigawa State to the PDP, if he can,” the statement read.