PORT HARCOURT – Less than 24 hours after the news broke that he has gone to court to challenge the emergence of Atiku Abubakar as the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Rivers State Governor, Mr Nyesom Wike, has disowned the move, saying he was neither aware no approved of it.
THISDAY, quotes the governor as dismissing the suit, saying it was the handiwork of mischief makers, who have been spreading some wicked rumours in recent time in an attempt to use him to score some cheap political points, adding that their gambits would not work.
The governor, who was beaten to a second place by Atiku in the chase for the PDP presidential ticket for next year’s presidential election, and also lost out in the contest for the running mate of the ticket, is believed not to be happy with the two outcomes, and had since been making suggestive statements depicting him as being at war with the former Vice President.
An attempt to reconcile the two, some days back, which was said to have fallen flat on its face, and the subsequent utterances by the governor, including his invitation of his Lagos State counterpart, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, also contributed to the confusion surrounding his next move, with many believing he could be launching an outright war against the PDP and its candidate.
The news of his filing a suit in an Abuja Federal High Court, against Atiku, Governor of Sokoto State, Aminu Tambuwal and the PDP, was seen along this line, as it suggested that he had made good his threat to let Nigerians know the truth about what transpired in the primaries of May 28 during the PDP convention and thereafter, after labelling the former VP a liar.
Wike in the purported suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/782/2022, was said to have claimed that the PDP primary conferred undue advantage on Atiku which aided his emergence as candidate of the PDP in the May 28 and 29 primary.
The governor, was however quoted as dismissing the suit, saying: “I don’t know anything about the so called suit. I did not ask anyone to file any suit for me. “I don’t know the lawyers. Am I a kid to be filing a suit at this time. I had 14 days after the primary within which to have filed any suit. I didn’t do that then, is it two months after primary I will file a suit? Just yesterday they came up with the claim that I ordered my Chief Security Officer to pull down PDP flag in Government House. This is all false, it’s all propaganda. Some people are trying to use me to win the election. Please disregard all these lies.”
