Governor Nyesom Wike of River State on Sunday declared his intention to contest the 2023 presidential election on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)
Wike made the declaration in Makurdi , Benue State while holding a consultative meeting with PDP stakeholders from the state.
During the meeting which was held at the Government House, Wike told the stakeholders about his intention to run for the presidency.
He then solicited for their votes and support in the coming national delegates congress of the party.
“To remove APC from power, I’m the person who can tell them enough is enough.
“We must take this power and I’m ready to take it for PDP. God is with us that’s why APC keeps failing everyday.
“I’m declaring it (presidential ambition) for the first time in Benue. I’m going to run for election,” Wike said.
He admonished the stakeholders not to sell their votes during the congress, but to give it to him.
The governor said that some PDP presidential aspirants were only after power for personal gains.
Wike attributed the failure of the party to win the 2019 presidential election to those who once left the party and came back to seek power.
He insisted that some founding fathers have lost their relevance, having decamped from the party only for them to return later to come and reclaim lost grounds.
“By the time you ran away, you sold your share as a founding father so you can no longer retain your position of founding fathers.
“I stood for this party. I work for this party since 1998. I have nowhere to run to and that’s why anything that happens to this party, I take it personally. I have never relented.
“In 2015, those who ran away made us lose the election. Today, they are crying but some of us stood and said PDP will not die.
“Some people want to use Nigeria to buy back their personal business. They talk about private sector – let them mention the private business that had survived. Is it banks that your father had? Everybody is an employer of labour even in my house I have 50 people who feed from me. They should stop deceiving us.
“I have performed as a governor and can carry my shoulders high anywhere. I have the capacity to face this evil government, give me the mandate.
” I will speak the truth to power and nothing but the truth. I have the capacity to move this country forward, ”
he said.
Governor Samuel Ortom in his response prayed that God grant Wike his desire to rule the country.
Ortom recalled that his River’s counterpart had never turned his back on Benue, especially in caring for the teeming people displaced from their homes by Fulani herdsmen.
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