Governor Nyesom Wike of River State has carpeted former governor of Anambra state, Peter Obi for dumping the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) few days to the party’s presidential primary election.
Wike, a presidential aspirant on the platform of the PDP, said Obi does not stand a chance of winning the party’s presidential primary if he had remained in the PDP, saying Obi, a Vice-presidential candidate of the PDP in 2019 has portrayed himself as the one without character and integrity with his exit from the main opposition party.
According to the Governor, Obi had not won a single election since he left the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), the party under which he became governor.
On Tuesday, the former Anambra Governor, in a shocking move announced his decision to withdraw from the presidential race on the platform of the PDP, and as well dumped the party, despite being one of the leading aspirants for the primary election.
Reacting to his exit on Politics Today, a Channels TV programme on Thursday, Wike wondered why Obi would have left the party three days before the party’s presidential primary.
According to him, Obi was given the Vice Presidential ticket during the 2019 presidential election but decided to ‘mess up’ the party at a crucial time.
In his words, “It is not surprising to me. That is what I have always said; when I go round to say ‘you (PDP) have to be very careful.’ Those of us who have joined the party since 1998, who have never left this party because this party is in our blood, it doesn’t matter what problems we may have in the party we have to be inside it to settle the problems.
“So, Peter Obi leaving the party is not surprising to me. I know and he knows that there was no way he would have won the presidential primary. Forget about what his (campaign) DG, Doyin Okupe, said. How would he have won? I went to Anambra and told them (delegates) that, ‘don’t waste your vote.’ Since Peter Obi left APGA then as a governor, he has never won election. That is not even the issue.
“The issue is that there must be integrity, there must be character. How can a man who had gone to all the states to tell them how he had been a trader, how his family has been trading, how everybody should support him, how he wore one (pair of) shoe(s), how he did not allow anybody to carry his bag, and all those things. Three days to the primary, he said he had left the party.
“What is he seeing that he did not see for how many years ago, 72 hours to the election, it’s now he’s seeing. A Vice presidential candidate for the 2019 election. Someone can be the presidential candidate and still abandon their party and mess up.
“Who are those people that make PDP lose the election? Can you trust them you give them a ticket? It will not be funny enough to do something that will finish PDP.
“When we talk about character, it’s an issue. You can be the best economist, but without character, it doesn’t mean anything,” he added.
