If Nyesom Wike wasn’t the governor of Rivers State, we can totally see him as a party hypeman. From performing diss tracks with his live band to taking relentless stabs at the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, Wike has done it all.
Wike’s beef with Atiku started after he lost the PDP presidential ticket to him and didn’t get selected as his running mate.
Wike’s fight isn’t with Atiku alone, but also with the PDP’s national chairman, Iyorchia Ayu. The governor has repeatedly demanded Ayu’s resignation as a condition to secure his support for Atiku’s campaign. For Wike, not getting his way is equal to wahala for everybody.
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For weeks, Wike was the only one running his mouth over the resignation issue, but Ayu has been firing back his own shots recently. Let’s look at the biggest highlights of the gbas gbos between the two senior men.
“How dare you stop PDP candidates from contesting elections?”
Wike gave it hot to Ayu after the national chairman hinted he has the almighty power to stop any candidate from contesting on the party’s platform. He was really referring to Benue State governor, Samuel Ortom, who’s one of Wike’s core loyalists. Wike didn’t like the threat and he challenged Ayu to try him.
Wike said, “I heard when he said he could have stopped Ortom from running for election. You see how ungrateful human beings can be. This was the same Governor Ortom who pleaded with us to allow Ayu to become the national chairman.
“This is a man who never campaigned anywhere. This is a man who never bought a form or a poster. Even the money they gave him to print posters, he never printed any posters. Now he is saying he can stop the man who brought him, who became his guarantor.”
“Ayu collected ₦1 billion in Lagos”
Wike also won’t let us hear word about how Ayu is corrupt and has repeatedly accused him of the illegal collection of ₦1 billion for the party’s primaries.
He said, “Ayu is corrupt. Quote me. I’m a lawyer and I’m the governor of Rivers State. Ayu collected ₦1 billion in Lagos. He told one of the PDP presidential aspirants before the primary that the governors weren’t ready to fund the party.”
This was when Ayu started to open his mouth and push back against Wike by denying the allegation. He said, “The consistent attack on my person since the end of the convention on May 31. I have refrained from reacting as the father of the party I felt I should encourage reconciliation. But where it touches on my personal integrity, I appeal to such people to desist from trying to malign my character.”
He promised to show to publish the party’s account statement by the end of the year to prove his innocence. But why wait that long?
“…his children will disown him”
As if the ₦1 billion issues weren’t enough, Wike also accused Ayu of collecting an additional ₦100 million illegally from a certain governor. And this is the point where Wike dragged Ayu’s children into the mess.
He said, “Let me tell you Ayu collected N100 million from a governor. If not for the love of this party, if we release what we have, Ayu’s children will go to him and say we are no longer your children.”
Wike is clearly too committed to this feud to quit and there’s no going back for him at this point.
