The senatorial candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Delta North and legal consultant, Prince Ned Nwoko, has, lately, been at loggerheads with the Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State over the latter’s power game with the presidential candidate of the party, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, vice-presidential candidate, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, national chair, Senator Iyorchua Ayu, and the leadership of the party.
Both Wike and Nwoko have publicly dragged themselves, but, last weekend, at his country home in Idumuje-Ugboko, Aniocha North local government area, where he hosted some senior journalists, the politician, who fielded questions on his senatorial bid and other issues, shed light on why he is livid at Wike, insisting that the party should clip his wings.
What is your fight with Wike all about? Is it because he is not supporting Atiku and Okowa in their bid for the presidency?
People think it is because of Okowa, but I have never discussed Wike with Okowa. I would not, why should I? I am a man of my own; I have my mind about anything. I am a PDP member and stakeholder and if somebody else is a nuisance to the party, are you saying that I cannot talk about it because of Okowa? I am my person and a stakeholder in PDP and want my party to win the elections in every state, if possible, and produce the next President. I see somebody trying to pull the house down and people expect me to keep quiet because I am from the same place as Okowa. No! I am fighting for Nigerians, who are also in PDP, and feel that Wike is taking his fight too far, even though he may air his views. You must have seen a video where he said, tufia kwa in Igbo language (meaning abomination), I would never be a vice president. Later on, when he lost the presidential ticket, he lobbied for the vice presidential ticket and it became a do-or-die thing for him. If Wike had been chosen as the vice-presidential candidate, would he be asking the National Chairman, Dr. Iyorchia Ayu, to resign? No, he would be licking his ass by now. He is not fighting for the South; Wike is fighting for himself and the few people who are around him. They are trying to destroy a party in which I am a stakeholder and I should not keep quiet
He thinks he is a bigger stakeholder, but he is not; every stakeholder in PDP is important, and he is hurting all of us. He has to stop it; he cannot be junketing all over the world displaying anti-party activities. What has he not done to hurt the party? Wike is out of his wits! There are ways of handling these people, and others will sit up. He is not untouchable; he is like a bull in the China shop, and when having such a situation, you remove the bull from the shop. I am in that shop myself that he is trying to destroy, and that is why I am not keeping quiet. That is an insult.
You alleged that Wike squandered Rivers’s share of the Paris Club refunds, but has the court found him guilty of any such offense?
You do not need to wait for the court to know that somebody squandered money; I spoke about it because I am directly involved. I know how much went to the Rivers State government and the local governments in Rivers State. I have also spoken to some people there to know that Wike did not use that money for the people of Rivers State. If he did, I can tell you that every hospital in Rivers would have been very well-equipped and had a constant power supply and those innocent children would not have died in the hospital because of the absence of a power supply.