My congratulatory message to Buhari came ‘from the heart’ -Wike

Nyesom Wike,  governor of Rivers state, says unlike most of his counterparts who sneak to Aso Rock to see President Muhammadu Buhari, he decided to congratulate the president openly.

Shortly after the tribunal dismissed the petition of Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Wike congratulated the president.

His party had earlier rejected the verdict of the tribunal and announced its intention to file an appeal at the supreme court.

The action of Wike, who was the coordinator of Atiku’s campaign in the south-south, had taken many by surprise.

But speaking at St. Luke’s Anglican Church, Emohua, during the funeral service of the mother of a PDP leader in the state, Wike said he knew that many people did not expect him to reach out to the president.

“I am sure all of you are surprised that I congratulated Buhari. Is it not good for me to congratulate him than to go to his house in the night?” he asked.

“Many PDP governors go to see him in his house in the night. I have never gone and I will not go. I won’t go. We are the only state that the federal government refused to pay us our money used to execute federal projects because I don’t go to see him in the night and I won’t go.

“He is not my friend; he is not doing well, but he won in court. Should I say that the court did wrong? No. President Buhari, congratulations and carry Nigerians along. Unify the country; the country is too divided. I am saying what is right. What I will do, I will do; what I will not do, I will not do.”