31st May, 2022
Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State has promised that he will fully support the 2023 presidential bid of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar who beat him to the presidential ticket of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP at the presidential primary of the party held last weekend.
Wike said said his support for the presidential bid of the former Vice President will be in line with the promise he made in his speech at the presidential primary that he will support whoever emerges as the party’s presidential candidate.
The Governor who reiterated his promise in a post on his Facebook page on Monday evening said he is not going to go back on his word.
He also added that he will not abandon the PDP because of his loss of the presidential ticket.
He said, “I made a vow to the Official Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Nigeria that i will support whoever emerges from the #PDPPresidentialPrimaries and i am not going to go back on my word.
“We cannot abandon the PDP, we will be fully supporting Atiku Abubakar.”
Atiku had polled 371 votes to beat Wike, his closest contender to the presidential ticket.
However, the Rivers State Governor reiterated the promise he made at the presidential primary some hours after the former Vice President visited him in his Abuja residence Monday.
The PDP presidential candidate had on his Tweeter handle, said the visitation was in continuation of his commitment to carry everyone along.
“In continuation of my commitment to bring everyone on board in ensuring that the PDP stands as one united party, earlier today, I visited Gov. Nyseom Wike at his Abuja residence.
“This is a continuous process,” the PDP presidential candidate tweeted.
Atiku had in his his acceptance speech on Saturday pledged to work with all those who contested for the presidential ticket of the PDP with him to ensure that the party goes into the 2023 election united and to give them a sense of belonging.
“Let me also use this opportunity to call on my fellow contestants and to assure them that I am ready to cooperate and work with them and give them a sense of belonging in this party and our next government.
“Therefore, my fellow compatriots, I want to appreciate your efforts in deepening our democratic processes in this party. It was a well fought primary election.
“So, I commend you for that and I look forward to working with you very closely so that together we can build this party to a level where we can take over government,” Abubakar said