PDP Crisis: You Lack Electoral Value – Wike Fires Back at Sule Lamido
POLITICS DIGEST- Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State has lambasted a former Jigawa Governor and chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Sule Lamido, saying he has lost political relevance.
Lamido had in an interview with Channels Television on Tuesday accused Wike of overrating himself, adding that the PDP could win elections at all levels without him.
The governor, in a statement on Wednesday by his spokesman, Kelvin Ebiri, however said Lamido had since lost his relevance in the party and reeled out figures from the last general elections in Jigawa to buttress its point that the former Jigawa Governor lacked electoral value.
Ebiri recalled that Lamido was one of those governors, who plotted the defeat of the PDP in 2015 by being openly disloyal to President Goodluck Jonathan, adding that it has taken the efforts of Wike to sustain the party up till this moment.
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He said with his recent tantrums, Lamido might be plotting the downfall of the presidential candidate of the party Atiku Abubakar for dismissing Wike as insignificant amidst reconciliation moves.
Saying that Lamido was cracking the walls of unity in the party, Ebiri argued that no right-thinking member of the PDP would dismiss Wike’s contributions to the party.
Ebiri said: “Under Lamido’s watch, as a governor of Jigawa State in 2015, the APC governorship candidate, Mohammed Badaru Abubakar, scored a total 648,045 votes to defeat his PDP opponent, Malam Aminu Ringim, who scored a total 479, 447 votes. Worst still, in 2019, governor Abubakar polled 810,933, while the PDP candidate scored 288,356.
“Such records depict that Alhaji Lamido cannot and does not have such political following that will benefit the PDP. Those who want electoral victory for the PDP are not dampening the morale required for political offensive at APC but Alhaji Lamido is cracking the wall of unity badly.
“Let it be told that in 2015, governor Wike, as a opposition candidate in Rivers State polled 1,029,102 votes to defeat the then ruling APC governorship candidate, Dakuku Peterside, who managed to garner a paltry 124,896 votes. And in 2019, the governor also won by landslide. These are marks of political sagacity and determination to keep PDP at a leading pedestal,” he said.
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