Wike, Lamido clash; Rivers gov boasts he controls state voters

Rivers Governor, Nyesom Wike has attacked Jigawa’s former Gov Sule Lamido who said on Channels TV on Tuesday that PDP and its candidate Atiku Abubaka should ignore the embittered governor.

According to him, nobody wronged Wike.

Since Wike lost the party ticket to Atiku, and lost out f the VP scramble, the party has been in crisis.

Wike has howevr lashed out at Lamido.

In a statement through his media aide, Kelvin Ebiri, on Wednesday, he described the comments credited to Lamido as disgusting and disdainful.

“While, we cannot deny that Alhaji Lamido has an inalienable right to his personal opinion, we wish to declare that he, however, lacks the right to malign governor Wike, whose immense contributions to the sustenance of the Peoples Democratic Party are not in dispute,” he said.

“It is rather appalling that at a time when concerted efforts are being made by lovers of true democracy and the unity of the party, to resolve some inherent contradictions plaguing the PDP, Alhaji Lamido and his cohorts, who have since lost their relevance in the polity, are busy creating friction and schism.”

He said Wike has never claimed to be the custodian of the over three million votes in Rivers state.

“But as the leader of the PDP and good people of Rivers State, anyone who underrates the governor’s political pedigree or dares to ignore his influence in the state and beyond will be doing so at his own peril.

“We wish to remind Alhaji Lamido that governor Wike has never left anyone in doubt about his capacity to sway the voters in Rivers state in a direction that benefits the people and the state, in overall.

“When he speaks, Rivers people will listen, no doubt. Perhaps, Alhaji Lamido thinks Nigerians are suffering from selective amnesia to have forgotten in a hurry, the ignoble role he and his cohorts played between 2014 and 2015, that culminated in the defeat of the PDP in the 2015 general election.

“We hope that he is not up in such scheme again to cause a repeat of that history. Otherwise, if Alhaji Lamido has any modicum of conscience, he won’t be making disparaging comments about governor Wike, whom many have described as the pillar of the PDP since 2015,” he added.