By Francis Ekeh 

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, has said Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State is not the custodian of votes in the State.

Wike had vowed never to support Atiku’s 2023 presidential bid.

He and five other PDP governors have been aggrieved with Atiku and the party’s leadership after he lost the presidential primaries.

The governor accused Atiku of backing Iyorchia Ayu to remain as the party’s National Chairman.

Wike and some governors of the party said a particular region can’t produce PDP’s National Chairman and presidential candidate.

The governor also accused Atiku of sidelining him in the constitution of his presidential campaign council.

Reacting, Atiku said Wike can’t manipulate votes in Rivers State following the introduction of electronic voting.

Speaking through the spokesperson of his campaign council, Dino Melaye, he said it’s wrong for Wike to think he would fail in Rivers State.

He stressed that the governor can’t decide who the people of the State would vote for.

“It’s very fallacious for you to think that because that governor is not with your candidate he will lose the State.

“I will cast your mind back to a day when you sat down and wrote results for a State. We are not in that era any longer. With the advent of BVAS and electronic transmission of results, in Rivers State, for example, Governor Wike is not the custodian or he is not to appropriate the votes of Rivers.

“If you now go to elections as it’s now with electoral reforms, the grassroots matters; the electorate matter; the youth and women matter. That is why Atiku is speaking directly to the conscience of the electorate,” Melaye told Channels TV.