Wike apologises to Oshiomole for supporting Obaseki in Edo election

The Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, on Wednesday apologized to the former national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole, for his role in the re-election of the Edo State counterpart, Godwin Obaseki, in 2020.

Oshiomhole and Obaseki fell out before the latter completed his first term in 2020.

The disagreement paved the way for his exit from the APC after he was denied the party’s governorship ticket for that year’s election.

Wike and a few other governors in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) were instrumental to the Edo State governor’s switch to the party and convinced the National Working Committee headed by Uche Secondus to hand him the ticket for the governorship election.

The pair fell out last year over the running of the party and other issues.

Wike, who spoke at the opening of the Rumuepirikom Flyover in Obio/Akpor local government area, apologized to the former Edo governor, saying he had learnt his lesson.

He also suggested that the past be left in the past.

The governor said: “I use this opportunity to apologise to you. I came to Edo State to make sure your candidate didn’t win the election. I said you won’t win and you didn’t win. That assignment has been done and we now know who is who.

“We are now friends, let bygones be bygones. I want to sincerely apologise to you. Each time you learn. People will praise you when you do for them. When you say they are wrong, they begin to say all sorts of things.

“I’m sure those in my party before cannot do anything without Wike but because I said let the right thing be done, let agreement be agreement, I have now become an enemy.

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“These are people who are praising me morning and night.”

On his part, the former APC chairman lauded Wike for initiating and completing many beautiful projects in Rivers State.

He said: “Executive exchanges have a way of communicating to the people that political divide is not war.

“I listened to you (Wike) attentively and you said Peter Obi is coming tomorrow. I want to congratulate you for that because I also invited Peter Obi when I was governor and those executive exchanges have a way of communicating to our people that political divide is not war.

“I also invited governors from other States to Edo the last one week before the end of my tenure as you said, for them to see what I was able to do.

“I promise that when I get back to Abuja, I will use my mouth to talk about what my eye saw. The flyover I saw is not a culvert. There are people who commissioned culverts and said they were flyovers but what I am seeing here is a beautiful flyover which you will see anywhere in the world.”

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