Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike has declared his intention to contest the 2023 presidential election, saying he has the capacity to unseat the ruling All Progressives Congress from power in 2023.
He made the statement during a consultative meeting with stakeholders of the Benue chapter of the PDP at the Government House in Makurdi on Sunday.
Wike said;
If you’re running election, power isn’t given for free; it is taken. I’ve come out and I’m going to take this power from APC back to PDP by the grace of God. We must take this power and I’m ready to take it for PDP. God is with us that’s why APC keeps failing every day.
God has given us what it takes. That’s why God is making APC to make mistake everyday and that is how you know that God is with you.
He, therefore, urged stakeholders to give him their mandates and not to sell their votes, assuring that he has the capacity to, “face this evil government.”
Wike promised that if elected, security would be his topmost priority and also queried those founding fathers who ran away from Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and still want to be recognised.
The Rivers Governor stressed that he takes issues of the party personal because he has nowhere to run to.
He said;
By the time you ran away, you sold your share as a founding father so you can no longer retain your position of founding fathers. I stood for this party. I work for this party since 1998. I have nowhere to run to and that’s why anything that happens to this party I take personally. I have never relented.
Wike further called for support from Benue PDP members to vote for him in the coming national delegates convention of the party.
He stated;
To remove APC from power, I’m the person who can tell them enough is enough. We must take this power and I’m ready to take it for PDP. God is with us that’s why APC keeps failing every day. I’m declaring it (presidential ambition) for the first time in Benue. I’m going to run for election.
He warned stakeholders not to sell their votes, but give them to him, adding that some of the PDP presidential aspirants were only after power for personal gains.
Wike also took a swipe at the likes of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and former Senate President Bukola Saraki, who left the PDP ahead of the 2015 presidential election to join the APC.
Both Atiku and Saraki have since returned to the PDP and have declared their intentions to run for President on the platform of the party in 2023.
Wike accused them of being the reason why the party lost the election in 2015, noting that those founding fathers who ran away from the party and now want to be recognised have lost their shares.
