The All Progressives Congress (APC), in Rivers State, has expressed readiness to receive former governor of the state, Barr. Nyesom Wike, if he decides to defect to the ruling Party.
A chieftain of the APC and a former Chief of Staff, Rivers State Government House, Chief Tony Okocha, stated this at a news briefing, in Port Harcourt.
This followed speculations that Wike might dump the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) for the APC.
Okocha, who was the Coordinator of the BAT-Vanguard, an acronym for the disbanded Bola Ahmed Tinubu Vanguard in the South-South, said Wike had the right to join any Party.
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He said the role the former governor played in the emergence of Tinubu as Nigeria’s President could not be over-emphasised, noting that some persons wanted to reap where they did not sow.
Said he, “We are noticing that some persons who abandoned Tinubu when Tinubu needed them most and voyaged outside the shores are now relying on their personal relationships one way or the other to begin to make some sense of entitlement.
“That they are entitled to whatever. In the leadership of the Tinubu family in Rivers State, we are at peace 100 per cent with His Excellency, Barr. Nyesom Wike, the immediate past Governor of Rivers State as our leader.
“He who pays the Piper dictates the tune. When it was difficult, even when the national body could not oblige us with funds for the national rally here, the magic was done by somebody.”
Okocha also urged the former governor not to delay in joining the APC to reap from his efforts in seeing Tinubu as President.
He continued, “Our demand is that nobody should rob Peter to pay Paul. Our own share of the booty given to us should be handed over to His Excellency Nyesom Wike.
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“We are confident that as soon as it gets to him, he knows those who worked for Tinubu, and it will get to us.
“It is only natural, that is how it should go,” he added.
While replying to an aide to the presidential candidate of the PDP, Atiku Abunakar who said Wike was not poisoned but suffering from excessive alcohol, he said it was a show of disrespect from the party leadership.
According to him, “The leadership of the PDP in Nigeria does not appreciate the influence and pedigree embedded in Wike.
“A man goes to thank God for surviving poisoning and somebody said it was not poison but as a result of excessive alcohol.
“It does appear to us that the PDP does not know what they have in Wike. So we are asking and calling on Wike to come over to Macedonia and lead us.”