By Adesina Soyooye
International Lawyer and a former Member of the House of Representatives, Prince Ned Nwoko, has asked the Leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to kick Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, out of the Party.
Nwoko, the PDP Senatorial candidate for Delta North, said that Wike has done a lot of damage to the Party, and has become a nuisance. He said the damage Wike has so far done to the Party was enough to show him the way out.
Nwoko spoke on Monday at the Asaba Airport, on his way from Abuja.
He said: “Wike is a nuisance. Quote me anywhere. If I were [in] the Leadership of the Party, I would have acted differently. I would have done things differently. He has done a lot of damage to the PDP, and I don’t know what they are waiting for to show him the way out.”
Wike has been at loggerheads with the Leadership of the Party and the Presidential Candidate, Atiku Abubakar.
It began when Wike was beaten to a second place by former Vice President, Atiku, during the PDP Presidential Primary where both of them were aspirants. The situation worsened when Atiku overlooked an expectant Wike, and chose the Governor of Delta State, Dr Ifeanyi Okowa, as his running mate.
Since then, Wike and four other Governors – Samuel Ortom, Benue, Okezie Ikpeazu, Abia, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, Enugu, Seyi Makinde, Oyo – whose leader he is, have distanced themselves from the activities of the Party.
They are demanding that the National Chairman of the Party, Dr Iyorchia Ayu, keeps his promise to step down for a Southerner if a Northerner emerge as the Presidential candidate of the Party. Ayu has refused to do so, with tacit support from Atiku.
The Rivers State Governor has spared no opportunity ti run the PDP down, and calling Ayu and Atiku names. The other day, he endorsed the APC Governor of Lagos State for a second term in office. And he had implied, a number of times that Atiku would lose.
He and Ortom have let it be known that they will not vote for Atiku in the 2023 Presidential election. In same vein, Makinde endorsed the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Bola Tinubu, and said he wouldn’t go against the wishes of the Yoruba.
