Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, has alleged that the Senator representing Abia South senatorial district, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, collected money from him before the PDP primaries and left for an opposition party, three days later.
The Rivers state Governor explained that the senator had wanted to leave the PDP out of provocation. According to him, he gave money to Abaribe but the senator left the PDP three days after receiving the undisclosed sum.
Wike, who made the allegation at the Abia State PDP campaign flag off in Umuahia, stated that Abaribe cannot be trusted to keep agreement and asked the electorate not to support him.
Wike,alongside four other governors of the G5 Integrity Group, who were in Umuahia, for the campaign flag off pledged to support all PDP candidates in Abia State in the 2023 general elections.
Wike, however, didn’t comment on the party’s presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.
He said;”I hope you people listened to Governor Okezie Ikpeazu. He will tell you at the appropriate time what to do. Abians should not trust men who don’t keep their words. There was a man from the Governor Ikpeazu’s Obingwa LGA who wanted to leave PDP out of provocation. We called him and said what do we do?
“He said we should give him money, and we gave him money. But three days after collecting the money, he left PDP. Should we vote for such a man?”
The G-5 Integrity Governors took turns to address PDP supporters.
On his part, Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom said the Integrity Governors are committed to rescue Nigeria from bad governance.
He vowed that they will never be intimidated by anti democratic forces holding the country down.
While Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, said that the 2023 elections would be like no other in Nigeria’s history, his Enugu state counterpart, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi prayed God to help PDP win the 2023 general elections.
In his address, Ikpeazu said that his administration had performed well, stressing that the PDP will record a landslide victory in the state.
He said the candidates of the opposition parties pose no threat as they are mainly those who were rejected by the PDP at the party primaries.
“Those who failed primaries in PDP jumped into the opposition parties and they handed their flags to them.
“Candidates of other parties are those we rejected in PDP. They were people in PDP wastepaper bin and were inconsequential. Go home and sleep, they are no threats,” Ikpeazu said.
Speaker of the Abia State House of Assembly, Chief Chinedum Orji, assured that the PDP would sweep the polls in Abia.
In his remarks, the PDP governorship candidate, Prof. Uche Ikonne, said he is lucky to fly the PDP flag and exposed hope that he will win the poll.
“When I look behind me, I see five warriors, and I am encouraged.”
Earlier, Abia PDP Chairman, Mr. Asiforo Okere, assured that the PDP in the state will retain power beyond 2023 considering Ikpeazu’s impressive achievements.
PDP Deputy National Chairman, South, Ambassador Taofeek Arapaja,from Oyo State, later handed over party flags to the 36 PDP candidates in the state, comprising governorship ,deputy governorship, 3 senatorial, 8 House of Representatives and 24 State Assembly seats.