Wike Peddling Falsehood — Atiku’s Man, Sekibo Slams Rivers Gov Over Contracts Claim

A former Minister of Transportation, Abiye Precious Sekibo, has hit back at Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, after lampooning him over his decision to work for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, in the 2023 election.

Sekibo, who served as a minister under the Olusegun Obasanjo administration, was recently declared the Director-General of the PDP Presidential Campaign Council in Rivers.

He, alongside some PDP chieftains in Rivers, fell out with Wike after they aligned with Atiku who has been at loggerheads with the Rivers governor ever since he emerged as the party’s presidential candidate.

Wike, while speaking at the inauguration of 319 ward and 32 constituency liaison officers in Port Harcourt on Monday, described Sekibo as a self-centered politician who has failed to attract any kind of democratic dividend to his people in Okrika Local Government Area of the state.

According to the governor, Sekibo turned against him despite receiving N2.1bn Okrika sand-filling contract, N2bn Okochiri internal road contract, and the N1.4bn contract for the Okujaku Street, Danjuma Drive in Trans-Amadi, Port Harcourt, from his administration.

But reacting on Wednesday, Sekibo denied receiving the said contracts. According to him, he only recommended competent contractors to execute the projects at Wike’s request.

He spoke in a statement signed by his lawyer, Christian Onuobodo Elenwo.

“Ordinarily, our client would not deem it necessary to respond to these deliberately orchestrated falsehoods primarily targeted to tarnish and destroy the hard-earned reputation of our client. However, our client since the release of this false statement by Governor Wike; has been inundated with phone calls from different people all over the Country to find out the truth or otherwise of these allegations. We have our client’s instruction to state the true and correct facts as follows:

“Our client is not a contractor and has never been awarded any of the above Contracts by the Rivers State Government. The contracts were awarded to Gascon Limited and our client is neither a Director, nor a Shareholder in Gascon Limited.

“Due to the cordial relationship our client had with the Governor coupled with the facts that two of these contracts were to be executed in our client’s hometown of Okrika, the Governor asked our client to recommend a competent company that could execute these projects. This led to our client’s recommendation of Gascon Limited to the Rivers State Government.

“Gascon Limited upon the award of these Contracts immediately mobilized to the sites and had successfully achieved 100%; 80% and 65% completion of these projects respectively to the knowledge of the Rivers State Government,” the statement partly reads.

Sekibo further asked Governor Wike to immediately retract the statement and tender an unreserved apology to him and have the same published in a national newspaper.