Wike and Tambuwal

Governor of Rivers State, Nyeson Wike has disclosed that he stopped supporting the presidential ambition of his former ally, Governor Aminu Tambuwal’s ambition because of zoning.

In 2019, Wike openly supported the presidential ambition of Tambuwal, the Sokoto State governor, who is considered to be his very close friend.

But Wike who also declared his presidential ambition last Sunday said he will not support Tambuwal this time around because his ambition in contrary to earlier agreement by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP to zone its 2023 presidential ticket to the South.

Speaking on a Channels Television programme, in Abuja, on Tuesday, Wike said, “Tambuwal is still my very good friend. In 2019, I supported him because we zoned the presidency to the North. In 2017, all of us agreed that this should be zoned to the North and that was why nobody from the South collected forms for that election and I have no regret about that. What I do not like is for people to deny that there is no zoning or there should be no zoning. That is what I do not like.

“The provision of our constitution is clear under Section 7, Sub-section 3C. It says, there should be rotation of party offices and elective offices. The founding fathers of the party know the complexity, they know the diversity of this country and they made sure that for equity, fairness and justice, this should be done.”

Wike said his decision to contest was, however, not based on the fact that the PDP wants to zone the ticket to the South but because he has what it takes to govern the country.

“In our party, we have always done zoning, so you cannot stop zoning,” he said.