Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State on Tuesday revealed how then-President Goodluck Jonathan traveled to London and pleaded with Atiku Abubakar to support his re-election bid in 2015 but he rejected him.
Wike stated this when the Governor of Ebonyi State Dave Umahi visited Port Harcourt to commission the Akpabu-Itu-Umudiogha road in the Emohua Local Government Area of Rivers.
According to him, Jonathan travelled to the Dorchester Hotel in London in 2015 to meet Atiku but rather, but the former VP “embarrassed” Jonathan and told him to relinquish his ticket to him.
Wike said, “We forget history. In 2015 when Jonathan as a sitting President, I am not talking as a presidential candidate but as a sitting President, when he had won his primary, Jonathan went to London to Dorchester Hotel, he went to plead with Atiku Abubakar to come back to the party and support him.
“You know the condition he (Atiku) gave Jonathan? He should relinquish his ticket not to run as the President of Nigeria. That was the presidential candidate of a ruling party. He gave him a condition, telling him to relinquish that ticket.
“Today, we are not saying the presidential candidate should relinquish his ticket; we are not being selfish, we are saying since you are now the presidential candidate, let our people take chairmanship.”
Jonathan, the PDP presidential candidate in 2015, had lost his re-election to Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
