Atiku Lost Because He Refused To Beg Wike- Says Fayose

In the aftermath of the defeat of the People’s Democratic Party,  PDP, in the just concluded  presidential election, Ayodele Fayose, a former governor of Ekiti State said he warned Atiku Abubakar, the party’s presidential candidate  that failure to dialogue with Governor Wike of Rivers state will end in a disaster.

Wike, we will recall lost to Abubakar  in the PDP primary election and later worked against his party after his demand that the party’s  charman, Iyorcha Ayu stepped down was rejected.

On February 25, Abubakar, a serial presidential contestant lost the presidential election to Asiwaju Bola Ahmed of the All Progressives Congress, APC, who has been declared winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.

Tinubu won the election after beating close rivals Abubakar and Peter Obi of the Labour Party, LP by scoring close to 9 million votes to win the critical election.

Not a few have blamed the crisis between Abubakar and five governors of the PDP, now known as G5 Governors for the party’s loss at the polls.

The G5 Governors had refused to support the candidate of their party after their demand that Iyorcha Ayu, the National Chairman of the PDP, step down was not met.

The ‘rebel’ governors are Governors Nyesom Wike of Rivers; Seyi Makinde of Oyo, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu, Samuel Ortom of Benue, and Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State.

Even though the G5 governors led by Governor Wike insisted that they had no problem with Atiku his strong support for Ayu, many insist, polarised the party to the extent that the crisis dovetailed into the election which it eventually lost to the APC.

Speaking on TVC on Tuesday, Fayose blamed Abubakar for mismanaging the crisis, blaming him for not maximising the opportunity do dialogue with the aggrieved governors.

Fayose said he told Abubakar that the only way to end the crisis is to go to Port Harcourt to beg Wike, but that close associates of the PDP candidate told him to do otherwise.

He said, “His excellency Atiku Abubakar called me, and I went to his hotel room…….where I told him to go to Port Harcourt with some people. I told him not to announce his coming that when he gets to Port Harcourt he should go with a few convoy of cars and park at Wike’s gate. I told him we will join him there,” and the matter will be resolved.

The former governor who, few days ago, ‘stepped aside’ from the PDP said Tinubu won the election to on ‘fare and square’, appealing to Abu and Obi to accept the results for the continue to move forward.
He, however, denied plan to join the ruling party, saying “he will never join the APC”.