Senator Chris Ekpenyong, lawmaker representing Akwa Ibom North West senatorial district, on Saturday said the actions of Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike will only strengthen northerners to vote en masse for the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar.
Earlier in the week, Wike and his group pulled out of the PDP Presidential Campaign Council and vowed not to support Atiku except the party’s national chairman, Iyorchia Ayu resigns from his position.
Speaking in an interview with SATURDAY INDEPENDENT, Ekpenyong, a former Deputy Governor of Akwa Ibom state said Wike is not playing the game the way it should be.
According to him, contrary to fears expressed in some quarters that the PDP will lose the presidential election because of the refusal of Wike to work with Atiku, he predicted that Atiku will win by a landslide.
His words “PDP will win the 2023 presidential election and I am predicting that it is going to be a landslide. What my brother, Wike is doing will only strengthen the minds of the North to vote for Atiku. Wike is polarizing the North and South now and he is making the North look at us with an evil eye. The worst scenario is that we are in the minority. So, Wike is not playing his game very well.
“Wike is my brother. If he has achieved what he achieved to the glory of God, I will still be happy but that is not how to play the game. The fact that he is being in public office doesn’t mean everybody has to bow down to him and then the philosophy of PDP has to be jettisoned because of one man.
“Is he now saying that Okowa who was picked as Vice-Presidential candidate is not from the South-South? What about Governor Udom Emmanuel that has been named as the chairman of the campaign council?
“Is he saying that Governor Udom Emmanuel is delinquency in mental or he belongs to a group that is mentally slow? Is he taking us for a ride because he has a clash with Governor Obaseki, that he was the one who assisted him to win reelection? That is not the way to go about it”.