Rivers: “Secondus, Others Are Fair-Weather Friends Who Encouraged Wike To Vie For President”

Chukwuemeka Woke, a former Chief of Staff to Nyesom Wike, has revealed that those fighting the former governor encouraged him to vie for president.

Woke’s remark is the latest in the ongoing war between the former governor, now the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, and Governor Simi Fubara of Rivers state.

Governor Fubara rode on Wike’s support to office last year, but later charted his own path, leaving his predecessor in a serious anger.

In the ongoing battle for the soul of the state, some leaders in the state, including a former National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Uche Secondus are supporting the governor.

Apart from Secondus those on the side of the governor include Celestine Omehia, a former governor of the state and one-time Wike’s ally, amongst others.

These leaders recently issued a statement openly chastising the FCT Minister, blaming him for the protracted crisis in the oil rich state. They told Wike to leave Governor Fubara alone, to enable him concentrate on the governance of the state.

Speaking during a stakeholders’ meeting of Emohua local government area held at the council’s secretariat on Wednesday, Woke said those supporting the governor are detractors who are trying to destroy the FCT minister’s image.

He said the detractors once ate and dinned with the FCT minister, that they even told him to run for president last year.

They have now turned against him, he stated, describing them as fair-weather friends.

The former CoS said: “The same group of people, on the 13th of December 2021 went and woke up our leader from sleep by 1 am. Twenty-seven of them signed and asked him to come and run for President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria when our leader was already sleeping.

“Our leader asked them if they would stand behind him and they said yes. When it was time for the Presidential primaries all of them ganged up against him. They should leave name-calling, when the time for name-calling comes we will go into that.”

Recall that Wike contested the PDP presidential ticket which he lost to Atiku Abubakar, a former vice president who later flew the party’s flag and lost to Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress, APC.