Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has insisted that Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State is not the custodian of votes in the state.
Wike and five other PDP governors are aggrieved with Atiku and the party’s leadership, after he lost the presidential primaries.
The governor accused Atiku of backing Iyorchia Ayu to remain as the party’s National Chairman. Wike and some governors of the party said a particular region can’t produce PDP’s National Chairman and president.
The governor also accused Atiku of sidelining him in the constitution of his presidential campaign council.
Reacting, Atiku said Wike can’t manipulate votes in Rivers State following the introduction of electronic voting. Speaking through the spokesperson of his campaign council, Dino Melaye, he said it’s wrong for Wike to think he would fail in Rivers State.
He stressed that the governor can’t decide who the people of the state would vote. “It’s very fallacious for you to think that because that governor is not with your candidate he will lose the state.
“I will cast your mind back to a day when you sat down and wrote result for state. We are not in that era any longer. With the advent of BVAS and electronic transmission of results, in Rivers State for example Governor Wike is not the custodian or he is not to appropriate the votes of Rivers.
“If you now go to elections as it’s now with electoral reforms, the grassroots matters; the electorate matter; the youth and women matter. That is why Atiku is speaking directly to the conscience of the electorate,” Melaye told Channels TV. Recommended for you Digital Marketing Courses That Would Look Great on Your Resume