By Ademola Adeleye
The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, allegedly made false statements during his recent interview on Arise TV.
Also, no reconciliation committee that would mend the crack in the PDP has been set up despite claims in the media by Atiku.
Rivers State governor, Nyesom Wike made these claims when speaking with journalists at the Port Harcourt International Airport.
“He (Atiku) appeared on Arise Television, see the statement he made. So many lies were told and you said I should not react to some of those issues. That would not be fair,” Wike claimed.
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It will be recalled that InfactNG had reported that despite all indices pointing to Wike as the choice for vice president, Atiku had chosen Delta State Governor, Ifeanyi Okowa.
But speaking in an exclusive interview last, Atiku gave reasons why he chose Okowa over Wike insisting he didn’t reject the Rivers governor.
Atiku said: “I didn’t reject Wike, I picked who can deliver. Wike is brilliant and tenacious. Going by history, I picked an Igbo as running mate in 2007, in 2019. I still picked an Igbo as running mate for 2023.
“The committee that presented the three nominees was chaired by the Governor of Benue State, Samuel Ortom. They recommended three people, so I picked one. People should be fair to me and state the facts.”
However, while addressing journalists on Friday, Wike said it was surprising that the party’s presidential candidate was making false statement regarding him after the primaries.
“You can imagine, the presidential candidate of the PDP Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, when he unveiled vice presidential candidate, no right thinking lover of this party would say that the speech he made on that day was fair.
“Assuming today, I’m not alive, obviously what they have said would be accepted as the truth. Look at his (Atiku) attack dogs, Sule Lamido, Babaginda Aliyu, Maina Waziri. Look at the statements they issued. Look at the abuses they rained on me, but I never reacted.
“And Nigerians will ask, you mean these things happened? So, it is important that as a person and for my own future, and for those who rally around me to say, look, this is not fair. So, I will make sure that I will react to them, line by line of the statements made by Alhaji Atiku Abubakar himself and his attack dogs.”
He added: “Look at it, a presidential candidate who believes that he wants to win election, and somebody who contested fiercely with him that has never raised any issue. I just kept quiet, just minded my business, to see how my state can move forward.
“But every day, his people come up to attack me, to say one thing or the other. That’s quite unfair and so I should let Nigerians know at the appropriate time which will be after the commissioning of projects that we have lined up.
“We will say look this is not correct, so that posterity, history will be on our side that we have been able to keep the record straight. So, nobody should be in doubt whether I am going to speak on the issue of PDP, issues of the primaries and other related matters.
“Nigerians will know what happen, Nigerians will know those who love this country, Nigerians will know what went behind. And that is to assure you am going to speak on that,” he stated.
