The Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, has asked Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State to apologise for comments made regarding the 2003 presidential election cycle.
It has been reported that Wike during the flag-off of the construction of Eneka-Igbo Etche Road in Port Harcourt on Friday said former President Olusegun Obasanjo “knelt” before Atiku in 2003.
the Rivers governor claimed that Obasanjo as President knelt to beg Atiku when it was clear that the former vice president was in a position to take his job back in 2003.
Reacting to the claims in a chat with Vanguard on Saturday, Atiku’s Spokesman, Phrank Shaibu, said the Rivers governor cannot be giving accounts of the event that he is not an eye-witness to or around the corridors of power in 2003.
He asserted that Wike was distant from the theater of happenings in national politics at that time and cannot claim to know what transpired between Obasanjo and Atiku then.
Shaibu, therefore, demanded an apology from Wike to his principal over his alleged distortion of facts and fabrication of stories.
He said, “In his futile bid to reinvent history, the Governor of Rivers State whose tenure will end in a matter of months, addressed the public telling unsubstantiated tails of what transpired during the 2003 presidential election cycle.
Suffice to say that Wike himself was nothing near the theater of events at the level of national politics at that time, but he nonetheless went ahead to fabricate stories that have been variously rendered by active participants whose account negate the impression that the Rivers helmsman desire to create.“
“Whereas Wike demanded a video or photo evidence of him and his co-travelers with political opponents of the PDP during their inglorious London meeting, it would be nice to subject the same Wike to the same standard of proof in showing evidence of what happened between Atiku and Obasanjo in 2003.
Governor Wike cannot be rendering accounts of the event that he is not an eye-witness to, and which he, at that time, was distant from the theater of happenings at national politics.“
Wike Should Apologise To Anenih’s Family, Obasanjo
Shaibu slammed Wike for seeking to desecrate the memory of the late Chief Tony Anenih by involving him in his concocted stories and lies.
Atiku’s aide added that Obasanjo is a revered statesman and it is highly unworthy that Wike would make vile comments about his tenure as president.
He stated that the late Anenih remained a close ally of Atiku up to his last moment and demanded that Wike apologises to the family of the deceased, and Obasanjo.
He added: “Beyond that, the relationship between the Anenih political dynasty and that of Atiku remains cordial to date.
It is therefore deserving that Wike renders an apology to President Olusegun Obasanjo, Vice President Atiku, and the Anenih family.
The former President is a revered statesman and it is highly unworthy that Wike would make vile comments about his tenure as president and leader of the PDP, paint Vice president Atiku in borrowed robes, and dance on the grave of Chief Tony Anenih.“
Atiku Actually Begged PDP Governors
Shaibu also attached a video of former Abia State Governor, Orji Uzor Kalu, who was one of the serving PDP Governors during the Olusegun Obasanjo era.
In the video, Kalu was heard saying contrary to what has been in public space over time, it was actually the then Vice President Atiku Abubakar, who knelt before 17 PDP Governors to beg that President Obasanjo’s second term bid should not be truncated.
