My Pre Election Discussions With Tinubu Against Wike’s Deal
OpenLife Nigeria reports that the Rivers State governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC in the March 18 election, Tonye Patrick Cole, has disclosed that he met Bola Ahmed Tinubu, President-Elect, to disuade him from forging alliance with governor Nyesom Wike during the February 25 presidential poll.
Cole, 56, and co founder, Sahara Energy group, made this disclosure at Thursday early morning interactive session on Arise TV .
Speaking against the background of alleged betrayal by the federal APC, which has not demonstrated sufficient support to his court move to reclaim his mandate, Cole maintained that he was aware of Wike’s deal with Tinubu before the election.
He noted that he met Tinubu in person to disuade him from the PDP and APC alliance in Rivers State, saying APC has the wining prospects without Wike’s input.
“I met Tinubu. He is a man I have known for a long time. He is of my father’s age. He has been close to my family,” he said.
Cole explained further that despite his convincing arguments to support APC’s victory prospects in Rivers State without Wike’s input, Tinubu stood his ground that he was going ahead with Wike.
“Tinubu is well experienced in politics and he stated that he knew what he was doing to win,” Cole said.
Cole, who complained of his inability to access relevant documents with INEC to file a case against PDPs victory in court, said he would fight to the last.
It would be recalled that on March 21, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Siminialayi Fubara, candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), as the winner of the March 18 governorship election. Fubara polled 302,614 votes to defeat Cole who scored 95,274 votes.