Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, on Monday, May 30, stated that he will not be regarded as a second-class citizen in the country.
Wike, who lost the Peoples Democratic Party’s presidential primary poll to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, addressed Rivers residents on Monday after returning from the Abuja election.
The Governor expressed disappointment with the election results and stated that the North should not claim ownership of the country, claiming that Nigeria does not belong to any geopolitical zone.
He stated;
We have all it takes to do whatever we want to do. It is a matter of you to be fruitful. We cannot answer second class citizens in Nigeria.
We just used this one to tell them that enough is enough. We made them not to sleep, we made them not to eat, we made all of them from wherever they think they are coming from to know that there is somebody who can take them on.
He further clarified;
This country does not belong to one particular zone. If people are afraid of talking, it is their business. I cannot be a second-class citizen in my country.
They just want somebody they can control, somebody that will do whatever they want him to do, I will never be a party to that, the only people that can control me are Nigerians, not the few people that want to remain in power since the military regime.
Wike went on to say that he was tempted to impede the process when an aspirant who had previously spoken was permitted to return to the podium to announce his withdrawal, which was against the election’s rules.
He noted;
I have never seen how people can violate procedures and guidelines. Somebody has spoken, it is at that point he was speaking that he would have said I am withdrawing. You don’t call him back.
I just said, ‘Look, this our party must not be destroyed.’
Atiku won the PDP presidential ticket after defeating Wike and 12 other aspirants in last Saturday’s presidential primary in Abuja.
He polled 371 votes to brush off the challenge of the Rivers State governor who garnered 237 votes.
