Why Obi is my hero of presidential election – Wike tells Igbo traders

Wike made this disclosure while speaking at a town hall meeting with some traders of the South-East extraction in Port Harcourt, the state capital.

Recall the Rivers governor is the leader of the aggrieved group of five Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governors, popularly known as the G-5, who fought against the retention of power in the Northern part of the country while holding on to the claims of fairness, equity, and justice.

Wike alongside governor Samuel Ortom of Benue, governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo, governor Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia, and governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State openly opposed their party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, insisting that equitable distribution of power in the party has been jettisoned.

Meanwhile, the Rivers governor told the Igbo traders that Obi’s entrance into the race disrupted the voting pattern which made it impossible for the PDP to dominate their hitherto strongholds in the some parts of the country.

He said Obi won in states where the PDP would have naturally won thereby ensuring that a Southerner emerged as the President-elect.

“In this election that we just did,” Wike said, “Obi is my hero, as far as I’m concerned. If he didn’t contest, power would have remained in the North.”

He also rubbished the insinuations making the rounds that he worked against the presidential ambition of Obi.

The governor, therefore, appealed to the traders to ignore negative comments by detractors and cast their votes for the PDP in the forthcoming governorship and state assembly elections in the state.