Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers state has walked back his initial statement which suggested he would publicly declare his preferred candidate in the presidential poll coming up later this February.
The Governor who spoke at the Rivers State PDP campaign rally in Port Harcourt on Wednesday, said he never told the public the method by which he would disclose his choice.
This is coming amid growing pressure for Wike to announce his preferred presidential candidate in the forthcoming election.
Wike who is one of five aggrieved PDP governors known as the G5 or Integrity Group had declared that he is not going to support the presidential candidate of his party, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, positing that the North cannot produce both the national chairman and presidential candidate.
Former Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dakuku Peterside, on Tuesday had challenged Wike to name his presidential candidate as expected, insinuating that the Rivers state governor is not bold enough to make his opinion known.
But the Rivers governor fired back at the All Progressives Congress (APC) member.
“You have the guts to tell me I should name my presidential candidate. Are we at the same level? Failure and success, are they the same?” Wike asked at the Rivers State PDP campaign rally in Port Harcourt on Wednesday.
“Look at the man who is always failing every day. He does not understand the activities of G5. I have told most people who don’t know, G5 that we’re fighting is like guerilla warfare. The more you look, the less you see.
“I never told anybody one day, I will bring a camera and announce to you this is who will go. I said I will tell Rivers people the candidate they will support. I did not tell you the method of saying it. I did not tell you I will bring live coverage and say it. But Rivers people know.”
Additionally, Wike derided Peterside over his defeat in the 2015 and 2019 governorship races.
“Look at this small boy whom I flogged in 2015. I don’t know where they say he comes from – is it Abia or Opobo side, which of the areas? Envy! I flogged him out in 2015.
“He has not recovered from that. He thought they would give him a ticket in 2019, but he didn’t get [it]. They sent him to be NIMASA. Ask him, what did he bring for Rivers people?
“You have a position, you cannot help your people, and you’re coming out to open your mouth, simply because you didn’t get [the ticket] and they did not give you a second term to be DG of NIMASA,” he said.
