2023: Wike Denies Meeting Atiku Five Times

The Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike has denied meeting with the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar over the crisis rocking the party.

Speaking on Atiku’s recent interview where he said he met with Wike at least five times, Wike said the ex-vice president’s comment is not correct.

He further stated that the only time he saw Atiku was when he visited him at his house after the presidential primaries of the party.

Wike disclosed this in an interview with BBC Pidgin on Friday.

He said, “With all due respect when you say someone tells a lie it would be like someone saying an elder tells a lie, what he says is not correct.

“The only time I saw Atiku after the primaries at my house was in Abuja, on Saturday after the primaries leading to Sunday, he came to my house in Abuja, I was returning to Abuja.

“We entered the office in my house in Abuja and said can we talk? My anger is that I discuss it with you, I respect you and you tell me something but unknown to me, you are not sincere about it.

“The worse is that you say it voluntarily. When we sat down he said he thought Ayu had to go because it was not a tradition that the chairman and presidential candidate would come from the same zone. So that was the only time Atiku came to see me after the primaries on Monday.”

He added that other times they meet are arranged and invited by other people.

“The governor of Adamawa state told us, my colleagues, who we believe the same thing that his boss – Atiku wants to talk to us. We agreed and we went to his hotel in London.”

“What’s the issue? we said no big deal, you have won, we are not talking about the presidential candidate anymore, can we follow the tradition of our party and let the national chairman comply and fulfil the promise he made, he told us in the meeting that yes he confronted the national chairman and the national chairman said he said so, I said if you have held the meeting, what is the hold-up?

“We agreed in the meeting and we said let’s meet again, as far as Ayu goes, now it’s the modalities.

“He asked us to give him one week and he will call us back, thinking that after one week he will call us back, we are governors for Christ’s sake, for Christ’s sake we are not houseboys.

“We waited that one week, and he didn’t call us what we heard next was that he made a statement that for the sake of constitutional challenge, Ayu could not go.”

“What? This is somebody who sat down with and agreed on something, asked his governor, Umar Fintiri, asked him.”