Dino Melaye, a candidate for governor from the Peoples Democratic Party in Kogi State, has disclosed that Nyesom Wike, the governor of Rivers State, allegedly requested him to make sure that Atiku Abubakar chose him as his running mate.
Wike had refused to support the party’s nominee when Atiku won the party’s presidential primary the previous year, claiming that the troubled party chairman, Iyorchia Ayu, should step away.
Wike stated that neither the party’s nominee nor the PDP chairman could be from the North together with the other four governors.
Dino Melaye, however, asserted that Wike was only opposing Atiku since the latter rejected Wike’s pleas and chose Gov. Ifeanyi Okowa as his running mate.
Melaye claimed that Wike contacted him almost 19 times in only two hours, pleading with him to persuade Atiku to name him as his running mate.
The plan against Wike in the just finished February 25 presidential election, he said, was the result of the former vice president’s unwillingness to comply with Wike’s request.
Melaye was responding to Wike’s statement that the former senator will never be Kogi State’s governor.
In an interview with AIT, Melaye declared: “Wike has no integrity whatsoever. As Atiku Abubakar was about to reveal his running partner, Wike started contacting me. I’m going to print the records I have. I’m awaiting his arrival. He begged us to persuade Atiku Abubakar to make him the vice presidential candidate over the phone 19 times in two hours.
At the airport, he was. I’ve got the video. He waited in the airport for hours for me to contact him and tell him that Atiku Abubakar had chosen him to be his running partner. He was calling me while he waited at the airport here. I’ve got witnesses. He was pleading with Atiku to make him known and making every promise in the universe. When I called him that—Oga, nobody go give you vice president—it was probably around one in the afternoon. He took off and flew back at that time.
