Wike: I Didn’t Say Tinubu Offered Me A Seat In The Senate; Disregard False Reports

Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, the governor of Rivers State, has disputed “false reports” that Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the APC presidential candidate, had offered him a senatorial ticket in exchange for leaving the PDP for the ruling party. 

The report appeared in some national dailies and online newspapers, most notably in Sahara Reporters.

Governor Wike is alleged to have revealed this during the media chat that was broadcast on Friday, September 23, 2022, on Channels Television, African Independent Television, Nigerian Television Authority, and TVC, according to www.bigpenngr.com.

However, in response to the news reports, Kelvin Ebiri, the governor of Rivers State’s special assistant for media, said categorically that these rumors are untrue, absurd, and baseless because the governor of Rivers State never specifically mentioned the APC presidential candidate by name during the media chat or even made any allusion to offering him a senatorial ticket.

In order to lay out the facts, he claimed, we have chosen to include the transcript of what governor Wike said regarding senatorial form here.

“First of all, this is how you know those who are prepared to run an election. Some of them collected presidential forms and at the same time collected senatorial forms. You’ll know that those people are not serious to run.

“I never collected a senatorial form. Even after the whole thing, people said, “Come and go for the Senate.”  I said no. I won’t do that. I’ve already made a commitment that this Senate ticket should be zoned to this area (Etche) because they’ve never had it before. I must not be in power.”

In an era of an increasingly divisive political climate, the tendency to pervert the truth is extremely high. It is on this basis that we wish to remind journalists that journalism’s first obligation is to the truth.

“At this critical juncture in our nation, we wish to remind journalists that getting the facts right is the cardinal principle of journalism. Journalists are enjoined to always strive for accuracy and give all the relevant facts in their report.

“We, therefore, urge the unsuspecting public not to give any credence to these false, baseless and ill motivated reports.”