2023: Wike shades Atiku, Saraki, others who once dumped PDP for APC

Nyesom Wike, Governor of Rivers State, launched an attack against top leaders of his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who at some point defected from PDP before they eventually returned to the party.

The presidential aspirant launched the attack on his fellow party chieftains on Sunday, March 28, 2022, while declaring his intention to run for president in 2023,

Although Wike did not mention any name in his remarks, the likes of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, the former Senate President, Bukola Saraki, and the Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tambuwal, fall into the called out category of past defectors.

Also, all the above names have also indicated their intention to contest next year’s presidential election.

“Let these people who are interested in presidency in the PDP tell us their contributions. You claimed to be one of the founding fathers of the party, but you left and came back; you have become an ordinary person in the new PDP.

“If you form a company and run away because the company is not doing well, then you come back and found that it is now doing well, will you want to come and take over?”

Mr Wike said at Government House Makurdi, in the presence of Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue and other PDP chieftains whom he went to consult over his ambition.

Mr Wike’s host, Mr Samuel Ortom, could be said to be among the PDP leaders criticised by the Rivers governor, even though he (Ortom) had not indicated interest in the 2023 presidential election.

Recall, Wike's declaration came during a consultative meeting with stakeholders of the Benue chapter of the PDP at the Government House in Makurdi on Sunday, March 27, 2022.

Mr Ortom was initially a member of the PDP where he served as national auditor of the party before his appointment as a Minister of State Trade and Investments under the PDP administration of President Goodluck Jonathan in 2011 before he (Ortom) defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC), contested and won the 2015 governorship election in Benue under the APC.

He later left APC in 2018 and returned to PDP.