Atiku scuttled zoning PDP Aso Rock ticket to the South, not me, says Wike

Atiku scuttled zoning PDP ticket, and ‘he should leave me out of his woes’

By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor

Nyesom Wike has fired another broadside at Atiku Abubakar and his cronies accusing him and Benue Governor Samuel Ortom of having frustrated zoning the presidential ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the South East.

“When the [PDP] zoning committee was set up, this time, Atiku had gone to buy form, to frustrate the recommendation of the zoning committee,” Wike reiterated at the inauguration of the Akpabu-Odido Road in Emohua Council.

The Rivers Governor, who is the chief strategist of the PDP G5, said he has always believed in and supported efforts to zone the Presidency to the South.

“I was one of those who led the campaign that the party’s chairmanship should go to the North because I believed the Presidency should go to the South.

“I attended meetings of Southern Governors of the APC [All Progressives Alliance], PDP and other parties from Delta to Lagos to Enugu States, where we agreed that the presidency should come to the South.”

While Southern cross-party consultations were going on,” Wike disclosed, there were people in the PDP bent on frustrating zoning the ticket to the South.

Such people cannot now turn around, deceitfully, to cast blame on him and Ortom so as to hide their scheme, he stressed.

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‘Telling lies up and down’

“I woke up this morning and read where they said, ‘How Wike and Ortom frustrated PDP’s micro-zoning of presidential ticket to South East’. That was what the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku, said,” Wike recounted, per The Guardian.

“I keep saying they will be contradicting themselves, telling lies up and down, thinking that Nigerians don’t know. How can they say that I influenced Ortom, told him to allow and throw the ticket open?

“Nigerians know those who are opposed to zoning of the party’s chairmanship first. And when the zoning committee was set up, this time, Atiku had gone to buy form, to frustrate the recommendation of the zoning committee.”

Wike urged Atiku to leave him out of his woes in the PDP.

A bad product is always difficult to sell, otherwise, he stressed, former President Olusegun Obasanjo would have recommended Atiku to Nigerians, having known and worked with him as Vice President for eight years.