Wike: I never asked people not to vote Obi | I only insisted on southern president

Nyesom Wike, governor of Rivers state, says he was not against Peter Obi, candidate of the Labour Party (LP), becoming president.

The governor said his main goal was to have a southerner become president.

Bola Tinubu, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), defeated Obi and Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the February 25 presidential poll.

Speaking during a media chat on Wednesday, the Rivers governor said there was no agreement in place for him to work for Obi.

Wike said he supported Obi as the vice-presidential candidate of the PDP in 2019.

“I never told Rivers state people to vote for a candidate, I told them to vote for the unity of Nigeria. I take exception to Peter Obi’s comment that I came out against him. People are not being sincere, people are not being appreciative,” he said.

“In 2019, ask Peter Obi, I was part of the team that chose Peter Obi to be the vice-presidential candidate of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. When we met at Alhaji Atiku Abubakar’s house, he said these are the names and we chose Peter Obi.

“While we were at (Bukola) Saraki’s house in the night, I was fought by people like Ike Ekweremadu and my own friend, people like the governor of Ebonyi state, people were like why must I be the one to choose Peter Obi, why must I choose for the candidates?

“Did he come out to say Governor Wike was the one who supported me to be the vice-presidential candidate?

“When he said I came out against him, it is unfortunate because nobody has ever heard me during my campaigns saying don’t vote for Peter Obi, I never said so. But even if that is the case, that I didn’t support you, you cannot say that I came out against you. I didn’t have any agreement with you in the first place.”

Wike said the G5 governors of the PDP fully committed to ensuring a southern candidate is elected president.

“I can tell you not just G5 governors, the Integrity Group met and said they are all for a southern president but not for the northern president again and that power has to shift,” he added.

“There was never a time that we said it must be who or it must be this but however, we formulated strategies that must make a southern president emerge and those strategies were carried out and results were achieved.”