Another PDP gov set to defect to APC –Wike

Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike on Wednesday said another governor, elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is set to defect to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC)

The governor made the claim on Channels Television’s ‘Politics Today’ programme on Wednesday.

He said: “I can tell you there is one PDP governor that will leave. He is not leaving because of anything but he will come up with an excuse.

“The point is that these are the people who have been playing anti-party, who have been romancing with the APC in the night and coming to the PDP in the daytime. My problem with our party is that when you speak the truth, they will want to crucify you. I have raised this issue several times.”

On the identity of the governor, Wike declined to say, adding that journalists know who the governor is.

Speaking further on the defection of Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi State, the Rivers State governor said Umahi had always been disloyal to the PDP.

According to him, during a particular virtual meeting of PDP governors, Umahi boasted that he helped President Muhammadu Buhari to garner votes in the 2019 presidential election.

Read also: Wike slams Umahi over defection to APC, reveals ‘real’ reason Ebonyi gov dumped PDP

“All of us are aware that Governor Umahi has been romancing with APC for long. We had a virtual meeting of PDP governors. I have never seen that in my life.

“Governor Umahi in that meeting, to the surprise of many governors, said ‘there is nothing anybody can do to stop me’. I promised President Buhari I would give him 35 per cent votes’.

“I never knew that people never voted in Ebonyi; that votes were allocated and Governor Umahi determined who gets what percentage”, he said.

Wike reiterated his position that Umahi left because he wanted to be President and not because the PDP marginalised the South-East as he claimed, adding that the PDP gave the South-East key positions while it was in power, including the Senate Presidency and the Chief of Army Staff which it had never had before.

He also said the PDP also nominated Peter Obi from the South-East as its Vice-Presidential candidate in 2019 but the APC had not even come close to such.

On rumours that he would be running alongside Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tambuwal, for the Presidency in 2023, Wike said: “Am I not a human being? Am I not supposed to have ambition? I am a human being.”

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