After failing to reach a truce in his disagreement with the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, Rivers State governor Nyesom Wike has ruled out the possibility of campaigning or voting for Mr Abubarkar prior and during the 2023 elections. 

Inaugurating the Rivers Peoples Democratic Party campaign council on Monday, Mr Wike said himself and his loyalists will not vote for Mr Abubakar in the forthcoming election.  

He accused Mr Abubakar of disrespecting him and undermining his electoral value by picking members of the party’s national campaign council without consulting him. 

“The presidential candidate entered Rivers and picked those he wanted to pick without the contribution of the governor. So, they don’t need me to campaign for them, they don’t need Rivers people to campaign for them. Will you force yourself on them?

“I have never seen how people will disrespect a State like Rivers and go choose enemies of the State, without the contribution from us. So, let’s campaign for those who have told us to campaign for them here in the State, the governorship candidate, the senatorial candidates and others,” he said. 

He added that “Politics is a game of interest. If nobody accommodates the interest of Rivers State, then we have nothing to do with such people. If you say that you have no interest in Rivers, Rivers will not have your own interest. It is only those who like us we will like.”

Mr Wike’s bitter loss at the PDP presidential primaries has blurred the line between his political interests and that of his supporters, however, he continues to use the voting population of Rivers State as bargaining power.