2023: Wike canvasses votes for Makinde, says relationship with Tinubu’s APC has ended

Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State on Friday said he had ended his relationship with the All Progressives Congress (APC) after the 25 February presidential election.

He said this on Friday in Oyo State while appealing to the residents in the state to support the second-term ambition of the Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde.

The Rivers governor was in the state, under the invitation of Mr Makinde, to take part in the inauguration of the Oyo State 5,000,000-litre Aviation Fuel Dispensing Depot at the Ibadan Airport in the Alakia area of the state.

Channel TV broadcast the event live, and PREMIUM TIMES monitored it.

Messrs Wike and Makinde are members of the G5, a group of aggrieved Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governors who rebelled against the PDP and its presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar on the grounds that it was the turn of the south to produce President Muhammadu Buhari’s successor.

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Mr Buhari is from Katsina State, north-west Nigeria.

‘Broom ended (on) Saturday’

“There’s no relationship with anybody again,” Mr Wike said in Oyo State, apparently referring to his brief endorsement and support for Bola Tinubu, the APC presidential candidate in the just concluded election.

“The only relationship we have on 11 March is umbrella. Nothing like broom. Broom had ended Saturday, last week,” he added.

Umbrella is the logo of the PDP, while broom is that of the APC.

Mr Tinubu defeated the PDP candidate, Atiku, the Labour Party’s Peter Obi, and others to become the 16th president of Nigeria.

The way the APC won the election in Rivers appeared quite dramatic.

Mr Obi was leading Mr Tinubu, earlier in the day, with over 23,000 votes in Rivers, when the results from 21 out of 23 local government areas in the state were released by the Independent National Electoral Commission.

By then, Mr Obi polled 169,414 votes, while Mr Tinubu scored 148,979 votes.

But Mr Tinubu overtook Mr Obi when the results from the two remaining local government areas – Obio-Akpor and Degema – came in.

Mr Tinubu scored 80,239 votes in the Obio-Akpor Local Government Area, while Mr Obi scored 3,829, followed by Atiku with 368 votes.

Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria Peoples Party scored 161 votes.

In Degema Local Government Area, Mr Tinubu scored 2,375 votes, while Mr Obi scored 2,212 votes. Atiku scored 3,108 votes, while Mr Kwankwaso scored 44 votes.

Mr Tinubu polled 231,591 votes in Rivers State as against Mr Obi’s 175,071 votes.

Yiaga Africa, a civil society organisation, had faulted the election results in Rivers, saying they were inconsistent with its observations.

The group, in its statement on Wednesday, suggested that the Labour Party won the election in Rivers.

Mr Tinubu, with the support of Governor Makinde, also won in Oyo State.

‘Makinde a dependable ally’

Governor Wike praised Mr Makinde whom he described as a dependable ally.

“I am not surprised at the performance of Seyi Makinde. You can only belong to G5, stamp your feet on the ground because you know what you are doing.

“It’s only those who are afraid, who have nothing to offer that cannot stand firm and be bold and take a decision and say that we must put things right, it doesn’t matter who is involved.

“Your governor has shown that he has the capacity, he has shown that he is the man that you can depend on. I am happy he is one of those that have made history by making sure that power shifts to the south,” Mr Wike said.