Legit.ng journalist Esther Odili has over two years of experience covering political parties and movements.
A former national legal adviser of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mark Jacob, has cited one major “reason” Nyesom Wike supported President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the 2023 presidential election.
Recall that Wike , in May 2022, contested the PDP presidential primary but lost to Atiku Abubakar , who emerged as the flagbearer of the party after securing 371 votes.
Wike, alongside his G5 faction, which includes then-Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Enugu state), Samuel Ortom (Benue), and Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia state), however, called for the removal of the suspended national chairman of the PDP , Iyorchia Ayu.
The former governor of Rivers state, who was against his party and Atiku but worked for the All Progressives Congress (APC), was appointed by Tinubu as minister of the FCT in 2023.
Speaking on Wednesday, February 15, when he appeared as a guest on Arise TV ’s The Morning Show, Jacob said Wike, and other individuals he did not name, “deliberately worked against the party (PDP)” in the election for his “selfish interests”.
“My position has been that you can never succeed when you are fighting your own family,” he said.
The former legal adviser added that Wike’s campaign that power should shift to southern Nigeria was because he wanted to be president, Premium Times reported.
“It was not for everybody in the south otherwise people like Peter Obi should have been given the (presidential) slot in the PDP,” Jacob stated.
He, however, urged Wike and his followers who worked against the PDP to voluntarily resign.
“If they fail to resign, they should be sanctioned.”
In another report, a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babachir Lawal, has said that Labour Party (LP) flagbearer, Peter Obi, won the February 25, 2023, presidential election and not President Tinubu as declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Lawal, a close ally of Tinubu, made this disclosure on Tuesday, October 17, in a chat with newsmen.
He claimed available factual data as aggregated from several independent sources indicated that Obi got the majority votes while Atiku came second in the election.
According to him, Tinubu came a distant third in the number of votes scored.
