The chairman of the Obaseki Campaign Council, Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State, said it would be difficult for the Edo State governor to rejoin the APC, as he would not forget how the PDP gave him an umbrella when he was left in the rain.
Speaking on Channels Television yesterday, Wike said: ”I don’t want to discuss something that is not going to be possible. However, assuming it happens, so what? That is politics.
“If the governor believes that the PDP is no longer a party for him to actualise his vision and his mission, there is nothing wrong. But I don’t believe that it is going to happen, because the governor has consistently told us that there is no way he will leave the PDP. If he leaves the PDP, people in Edo State will not be happy.
“And he is somebody I have that trust in that he will not leave the party. This is a party that clothed him. This is a party that when it was raining, gave him an umbrella.”
Wike denied funding Obaseki’s campaign, saying the Edo governor already had sufficient resources of his own to prosecute the campaign.
On his telephone conversation with Police Inspector-General Mohammed Adamu on the eve of the election, Wike said he was asked to leave Edo State immediately.
He said: “The IG never saw me outside. I was inside my room and I got a call from the IG that I must leave Edo State.
“What surprised me was why should I leave Edo State? I am the chairman of the campaign council and the chairman does not mean that after the campaign, you leave. No, you must monitor what is going on so that at the end of the day, you would be able to write your report.
“I discovered that the IG’s own had nothing to do with the election. Because I remembered that some time ago, my commissioner returned to me from a FAAC meeting and said there were deductions made to the Police Trust Fund.
“I asked who approved it, because the police are under the exclusive list and not the concurrent list. I told my attorney-general to challenge it. This angered the IG.”
He also said he apparently incurred the wrath of the police boss after he (Wike) prevented the police from arresting a former acting Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission, Joi Nunieh.
”When our sister, Joi Nunieh, was to be abducted, IG was not happy about my intervention. He called me and I asked him how could you allow a woman to be taken away at 4 am, knowing the security situation in the country today? Why didn’t you invite her?”
He alleged that pressure was being mounted on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the security agencies to scuttle the will the people during next month’s governorship election in Ondo State.
The governor in a statement signed by his Commissioner for Information and Communications, Paulinus Nsirim, said the national leadership of APC was not happy that the party lost Edo to the PDP and would do everything possible not to lose Ondo.
He said: “Having lost Edo State, everything will be done not to lose Ondo State, because they know that will mean the end of APC. It is such pressure that is on INEC and the security agencies now that may lead to their compromising.
“I fear that INEC and the security agencies may succumb. But I pray they resist it and continue to defend democracy. In Ondo State, the will of the people are against them and incumbency will not work.”
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