Edo state governor, Godwin Obaseki, has expressed his heartfelt gratitude governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State for his role and support in his successful re-election campaign.
Speaking when he visited Wike on Wednesday, the governor said Wike clothed and fed him after he was “pushed out” of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Obaseki disclosed that the Rivers governor was among the first people that met with him shortly after the APC screening committee disqualified him from the Edo governorship poll. Wike also paved the way for Obaseki to emerge as the PDP candidate in the September 19 election, mediating and inviting other candidates to step down for him.
He would later lead Obaseki’s re-election campaign efforts as the chairman of the national campaign committee, mobilising grassroots and national support for his Edo state counterpart.
Paulinus Nsirim, Rivers commissioner of information, disclosed that Obaseki led some political leaders from Edo on a thank-you visit to Wike for supporting his reelection.
A statement released in Port Harcourt revealed that the Edo governor acknowledged that it was at the Rivers government house that the strategies that led to his victory were formulated.
Obaseki was quoted as saying, “After I was pushed out of my former party, this house was the first place I sought solace. You took me in as a brother, out of the storm, changed my clothes and gave me food to eat,” he said.
“It was in this house, the campaign council met to work out the key strategies that led us to victory. You mobilised people across the country. You moved to Benin, went through the humiliation and attacks. You supported us and we won.
“It will be a sin against God if we do not come to say thank you. Even if the victory we are celebrating is from God. He has used people like you to make it happen.”
Responding, Wike praised him for standing “firm” in the election, saying he could not have supported a “lily-hearted person.”
“Our work would have been difficult if he did not make himself available. I cannot support a lily-hearted person. Governor Obaseki was firm,” he said.
“It is not easy to fight godfatherism. But he has the interest of Edo people at heart. Together, we have conquered it.
I thank you my brother, Obaseki for carrying everybody along in the party.”
He further told Obaseki that his victory was the “sweetest” he has ever witnessed, and urged him to forgive his opponents.
“Edo people are also looking up to you to forgive everybody. Forgive your political opponents,” he said, adding: “I am happy that today, south-south is under one political party. We can speak with one voice in moving Nigeria forward. This is the sweetest electoral victory I have ever witnessed.”
Obaseki defeated his closest rival, Osagie Ize-Iyamu of the APC in the September 19 poll, adjudged by several observers and stakeholders to have been fair and transparent.
