Obasanjo knelt before Atiku, accepted his conditions in 2003 - Wike

The Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, has resumed his hostilities against the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar.

The governor, alongside other Governors of the G5 group, arrived in Nigeria from a London trip on Friday, December 30, 2022, and quickly resumed state duty.

Recall that Wike and other aggrieved PDP governors including Seyi Makinde (Oyo), Samuel Ortom (Benue), Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Enugu), and Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia) reportedly struck a deal to work for the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, in the 2023 election.

Reacting to the report on Friday, Wike, who spoke during the flag-off of the construction of Eneka-Igbo Etche Road, denied any agreement with any presidential candidate.

Speaking on the G5's demands from the PDP and the promise the party's presidential flag-bearer allegedly made to him that the National Chairman, Iyorchia Ayu, would vacate his position, the governor said history was only repeating itself.

He recounted how Atiku, while he was Vice President to former President Olusegun Obasanjo, gave his principal certain conditions before he (Atiku) could support his (Obasanjo) re-election bid.

Wike's words: "We forget history. In 2002 and 2003, when President Olusegun Obasanjo wanted to run for second term. A whole President wanted to run for a second term, he knelt down before his vice. He knelt down before his vice and said, my vice please allow me to run.

"You know one of the conditions he (Atiku) gave him? He said Tony Anenih must be sacked as the Minister of Works. And Tony Anenih must not be in the presidential campaign council. Obasanjo obliged and sacked Tony Anenih from Works and removed him from the presidential council and brought him back to South-South.

"And people are talking, this is a president. His own vice giving him condition. A general."