Governor Nyesom Wike has stated that he will not jump ship despite the crisis rocking the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) ahead of the 2023 general elections.
Wike made the statement on Thursday, September 22, 2022, during a meeting with PDP stakeholders in Rivers state.
Wike’s comments are the latest in the long-drawn saga rocking the PDP over calls for the resignation of National Chairman, Sen Iyorchia Ayu, since the emergence of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar as the party’s flagbearer.
The latest events have seen members of the Wike camp pull out the 2023 Atiku/PDP presidential campaign citing Ayu’s refusal as their reason.
Speaking on the development, Wike on Thursday, said he will remain in the party as only weak people run from fights. He further restated that it is wrong for the PDP’s Presidential candidate, Chairman and Campaign DG to come from the North.
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“One thing I have always told people is if anybody is thinking, doing anything to think that we will leave PDP, foul. We will do the fight in the party. We are not like them when in 2014 they walked out from Eagle Square. They’ve forgotten. They walked out and joined APC. Is it not correct?” Wike was quoted as saying.
“Did they remain to fight inside the party? But we remained; they ran away. Now, there is a fight in the party, we will not run. We will fight it in this party. Those who run away from fights are weak people. We will not. So, everybody should know this is the state where we are so that nobody tells you all kinds of stories.
“You have taken presidential candidate; you have taken party chairman; you have also taken the DG (director-general) of the campaign. We are talking about party politics. Decisions are made by the presidential candidate, the chairman of the party, and the DG of the campaign.
“They are telling you they told the chairman of the BoT to resign. So, you know there is a problem. You said he should go and resign. You can put pressure on him to resign when his tenure hasn’t come to an end, but you cannot put pressure on the chairman to resign. You think at our level you will deceive us; you’ll tell us stories.”