Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, has disclosed that he once persuaded the President-elect, Bola Tinubu, to quit the All Progressives Congress for the Peoples Democratic Party in 2018.
Wike made the disclosure during a state banquet in honour of the President-elect on Wednesday in Port Harcourt.
He said he met the former Lagos State governor in 2018 at his Bourdillon home in Lagos around 2 am in his bid to convince Tinubu to join the main opposition party.
The governor, however, said Tinubu declined his offer after he (Wike) listed potential presidential candidates in PDP.
Wike said, “I met him first in 2018 around 2 am in his house -Bourdillon. I was sent to go and talk to him, how he can join us. I went to him, I said sir, I hear you can’t find your feet again in APC. Why not join us and let’s support one of these our candidates to win the 2019 election?
“He asked me. Who are these your candidates, I mentioned them. He said look, if it is these ones you have, I will support (Muhammadu) Buhari 200 times. He told me that. And I respected him.”
On his support for Tinubu during the 2023 presidential election, the governor said, “We didn’t do anti-party, we supported the unity of Nigeria which is more important than any political party. Those who did anti-party are those who violated the provision of the constitution of their political party, they did anti-party.”
Wike said since they insisted that they “must obey the constitution of our party, we cannot be held for anti-party”.