Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State has accused the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, of frustrating the micro-zoning of the party’s presidential ticket to the South.

Wike made the accusation on Monday during the flag-off of the Akpabu-Odido Road project in Itu community, Emohua Local Government Area of the state.

The governor said the former Vice President and his cohorts in the party frustrated the effort to zone the presidency to the South while the zoning committee was inaugurated.

Wike stated he had always believed and supported concerted efforts towards ensuring that the presidency was zoned to the South and campaigned that the party’s chairmanship should go to the North.

The governor, however, urged the former Vice President to leave him and four other aggrieved PDP governors out of the serious challenges he was facing in the party.

He said: “I woke up this morning and read where they said, how Wike and Ortom frustrated PDP’s micro-zoning of the presidential ticket to South-East. That was what the PDP presidential candidate Atiku said.

“I keep on saying, they’ll be contradicting themselves, telling lies up and down, thinking that Nigerians don’t know. How can they say that I influenced Ortom, told him to allow it, and throw the ticket open?

“Nigerians know those who are opposed to the zoning of the party’s chairmanship first. And when the zoning committee was set up, this time, Atiku had gone to buy form to frustrate the recommendation of the zoning committee. So that when they have bought form, they could say, oh, there is no need for zoning. Will you tell people to withdraw?

“I was one of those who led the campaign that the party’s chairmanship should go to the North because I believe the presidency should go to the South.

“I attended meetings of Southern Governors of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and other parties from Delta to Lagos to Enugu States, where we agreed that presidency should come to the South.”

The governor said it was rather noteworthy that the gimmick played by the former Vice President and his allies are now hunting them because they were unfair to Nigerians.

Wike maintained that the Atiku camp cannot turn around now to blame him and Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State in order to deceive Nigerians.

He added: “Yes, you don’t like Ortom, no problem. I know my own, you don’t like me, no problem. But I, my state gave you the highest support in 2019 both with logistics and by votes.

“You can’t deceive every Nigerian again. What I have stood for is equity, fairness, and justice. So, saying that I and Ortom frustrated PDP micro-zoning to the South-East is neither here nor there. They know that they don’t want the presidency to come to the South.”