Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike claims he has never met embattled Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) National Chairman Iyorchia Ayu.
WITHIN NIGERIA reports that Wike said but for his counterpart in Benue State, Samuel Ortom, he would not have known Ayu.
This comes as the governor, speaking on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Monday, recalled how Ortom was instrumental in Ayu becoming the PDP national chairman.
According to him, Ortom endorsed Ayu’s appointment as PDP national chairman. A move that the governor claimed silenced those who opposed him becoming chairman at the time.
Remember that Wike, one of the PDP’s five disgruntled governors, refused to work for the party’s flag bearer, Atiku Abubakar, in the recently concluded general election.
He and four other members, including Ortom, insisted that Ayu resign his position to make way for a candidate of southern extraction.
However, Ayu’s refusal to resign cost the PDP the support of these five governors in the 2023 elections.
Wike said;
Ayu is not somebody I have had any relationship with, in fact, it was his governor (Ortom) who even told me to invite him to come and commission a project, I didn’t know ayu before, so I invited him.
Some people intellectually, they may be sound, but when you put them on that seat it becomes a different thing.
When we met, Ortom said he could vouch for the man, and I asked him, you are a governor, we have agreed that no chairman should come where the governor is from the senate, it always brings some crisis.