The Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, has declared the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, the hero of the just concluded presidential election.
This follows his victory in states that could have been won by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Wike made this known while addressing a town hall with Igbo traders in Port Harcourt, the state capital, where he told the traders that he and other G5 governors advocated for southern presidency.
The candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Bola Tinubu, won in Rivers State, and Governor Wike confirmed in a video that the ‘Integrity Group aka G-5 Governors’ influenced the outcome of the votes in favour of Tinubu.
Wike is one of the five aggrieved PDP governors known as G-5 aka Integrity Group who refused to support their party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, over an alleged violation of the party’s constitution on zoning.
“In this election that we just did,” he said, “Obi is my hero, as far as I’m concerned. If he didn’t contest, power would have remained in the North.”
Wike also explained he did not openly endorse a presidential candidate because he was bound by his agreement with the other aggrieved governors, adding that he had no reason to work against the former Anambra governor.
Wike urged the traders to ignore comments by detectors and vote for the PDP in the March 18 governorship and state assembly elections.
Others in attendance were the governorship candidate of the PDP in the state, Sim Fubara; the South-South Vice Chairman of the PDP, Dan Orbih, among others.