Sule Lamido, former governor of Jigawa State, has said Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State stated clearly that he was not interested in becoming the vice-presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the 2023 general election.
Lamido further explained that Wike, who contested the presidential primary of the PDP, said he was not using the primary to negotiate for a VP slot.
The Jigawa governor, who said he was a member of the committee that recommended three persons for presidential candidate of the PDP, Atiku Abubakar, however, said the former vice president was not obliged to the committee’s advice.
“I was on the panel. Now, the criteria the members of that committee might have used might have been confined within the walls of the PDP, but they chose somebody for Nigeria not for the PDP.
“If the whole thing is going to be centered on the PDP, by the time we have an in-house thing, we may lose the election, no problem, but then, whatever we do, we are going to bring it outside and tell Nigerians that this is what we are giving them, that was what we did.
“Therefore, Atiku is not obliged to pick our own recommendation. We gave him three names to choose from. In any case, (for) those who are ranting, Wike said he didn’t have the aspiration to run for vice president, and that he was running not for any negotiating purposes.
“He said so. He made it very clear. He said whatever he did was purely for that purpose and will not use his aspiration to negotiate for anything,” Lamido added.
