Wike: We Risked Our Lives to Keep Matawalle in PDP

Wike yesterday took a swipe at Matawalle for betraying the opposition party.

He said PDP governors risked their lives by travelling on what he described as, “very terribly bad road” from Sokoto to Gusau, the Zamfara State capital, to appeal to Matawalle not to leave PDP.

He stated that none of the three governors who have so far defected to APC have told Nigerians why they left PDP, adding that they left to seek political relevance and protection from prosecution from the Buhari administration.

Wike spoke during an interview with ARISE NEWS Channel, the broadcast arm of THISDAY Newspapers.

He said: “I have never taken such a risk in my life, flying down to Sokoto with my colleagues and travelling by very bad road from Sokoto to Zamfara and of course the issue of insecurity for three hours. We went to see our colleague and you can’t understand what your colleague was saying.”

He advised the PDP to go to court to challenge Matawalle’s defection, as it was the party which went to court to challenge the none-adherence to the Electoral Act by the APC, which led to the Supreme Court judgment that paved the way for Matawalle to become governor.

“PDP went to court to say that the APC did not fulfil the Electoral Act; they did not comply with the provisions of the Electoral Act because INEC said there was no primary and INEC said every party must conduct primary,” he added.

Wike, however, was optimistic that many APC bigwigs will defect to the PDP as the 2023 general election approaches, adding that he will not advise anyone to defect from the APC to PDP now because not everyone can face the persecution of the APC-led federal government.

He said: “So, many people in APC cannot now openly defect to PDP. You must be very careful with fear of being hunted; for fear of now going to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC); it is not easy but I can tell you, you will see what will happen as we move next year towards going to the period when Buhari’s tenure will expire.

“You will see. Many people will come out at that time; the president will not have anything to do. But if anybody tries it now, then you must be prepared to face the consequences, so it’s not easy.”