Rivers votes not your property, Atiku fires back at Wike

The presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress, Atiku Abubakar, has slammed the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, over his recent remark that he will not get 10% of votes in the next year’s general elections in Rivers State.

The former River State Governor had stated that Atiku and the ADC will not secure up to 10 per cent of the total votes cast in the 2027 presidential election in the South South state.

Wike stated this at a luncheon on Saturday in honour of candidates of the Rainbow Coalition for the 2027 elections in the state.

According to him, no other candidate of any other party would win the governorship election in the 2027 contest, except the candidate to the agreed by his Rainbow coalition.

Reacting in a statement released on Monday by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, the former Vice President said the electorate in Rivers State is intelligent enough to decide the outcome of elections in the state.

He stated that no individual, regardless of influence or access to federal power, can dictate how an entire state will vote.

Atiku said that the minister’s comments only exposed the growing panic within the Tinubu camp over the emergence of a formidable opposition coalition under the ADC.

He added that it was both amusing and disturbing that Wike now speaks as though Rivers voters are his personal property to be allocated at will.

“Rivers vote are not your property. The people of Rivers State are not political slaves. They are intelligent, independent-minded Nigerians who will make their choices based on the realities confronting them and the future they desire for their children.

“No individual, regardless of influence or access to federal power, can dictate how an entire state will vote,” the statement read.

According to him, Nigerians are more concerned about the soaring cost of living, worsening insecurity, and economic hardship than the political predictions of a minister who appears to have abandoned governance for perpetual electioneering.