The executive governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, has said that his preferred candidate among those running for the seat of the President of the country will be unveiled in January.
Wike disclosed this recently while commissioning the tenth flyover by his administration in the Obio-Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers state.
According to him, not only will he inform his supporters who to vote for, but will also be physically involved in the state-to-state campaign for his yet-to-be-disclosed preferred candidate.
He said, “from January next year, I will campaign to my people who they will vote for. So all of you who have been in suspense, who have been saying all kinds of things abusing me, wait until January comes.
“Not only will I tell them where they will vote, but I will also move from state to state telling them why they should vote for the people I said they should vote for. Nothing will happen.
“So all of you, appearing on television, abusing me, don’t waste your saliva again, January has come. Don’t waste your saliva and go on your platform.
“All those telling Nigerians that you used to have forty shoes, you used to have fifty wristwatches, the time has come to convert those shoes and wristwatches to vote.
“It’s not to be on the podium and raise your shoe high and raise your wristwatch high, time has come to convert it to vote.
“Those who have never been stabled, moving from PDP to… and there back to PDP, those of you who made a campaign in 2015, telling Nigerians if they vote for PDP, they are voting for an insurgency, corruption, wait all of us will reply, we will tell Nigerians this thing you said how far what is the system now, is it the same PDP or a new PDP.
“Let me use this opportunity to advise those of you who call yourselves our brothers in Abuja, this 2023 election will confirm to us in Rivers State, who are those that influence us to vote. Those that their people will listen to and vote for. It’s not to be in Abuja and tell them whatever you are telling them. Come home, our polling booths are not in Abuja, they are here. Stop telling them lies, What you cannot do, say you cannot do.
The governor also dismissed the speculation that the Rivers State government has refused to allow opposition parties to use the state facilities for their political campaigns, adding that all that is needed to be done is to apply for the facility and make the necessary payment.
“If you want to campaign like the PDP is going, go and pay. If you want to use primary school, pay. So that when you dirty the school, we can clean it up. When you spoil something, the school will replace it. We did not say you should not use it but pay the money.”
Wike in recent times has been at loggerheads with the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party over the decision of the party leaders to retain Iyorchia Ayu as the party chairman.
Wike, alongside other four PDP governors, known as (G5) has maintained that it is an injustice for both the presidential flag bearer and National chairman of the party to come from the Northern part of the country, insisting that ‘Ayu must go’ before they can throw weight behind Atiku in the 2023 presidential election.