Governor Nyesom Wike Rivers State, said the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Tonye Cole, and his people worked against the President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, but failed in the elections.
Wike said he led the campaign for a southern Presidency that delivered bulk votes to Tinubu while Cole worked for the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar.
The governor spoke yesterday during the inauguration of Government Secondary School in Kpor community of Gokana Local Government Area.
Referring to Cole, he said: “How can people say that they rigged you? You said you made your presidential candidate to win. Your presidential candidate won, but you don’t get one Senate (seat). What kind of winning is that?
“They supported PDP candidate and they lost woefully. They didn’t get 25 percent. We supported a southern president for equity, fairness and justice and we took the Senate. We took 11 House of Representatives seats out of 13. We prove to them we are responsible and we are in charge of the state.”
Wike wondered why Cole, and not his lawyers or agents, were the ones going to the Independent National Electoral commission (INEC) office to collect certified true copies (CTC) of electoral materials.
He said the show of desperation by Cole suggested a sinister motive that should not be quickly discountenanced but queried.
The governor dismissed as baseless Cole’s allegations that Rivers PDP attacked him and prevented him from accessing the INEC office in Port Harcourt, the state capital.
Wike insisted that the popularity of PDP in Rivers State enable it to win all three senatorial seats, 11 House of Representatives seats and all 32 State House of Assembly seats in the state.
The governor said the people would not have given Cole, who is facing prosecution for allegedly diverting $50 million proceeds from the sale of the state’s assets to Sahara Energy, their mandates.
Wike described as laughable the decision of the governorship candidate of Accord Party, Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs, and that of the Labour Party (LP), Beatrice Itubo, to approach the election tribunal to contest the results.
He said such candidates were not opponents in the election but were only desirous to be on the ballot.