The agreement between Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State and Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the APC’s presidential candidate, has Rotimi Amaechi’s camp on edge. Amaechi is a former minister of transportation.
During the APC’s presidential primaries in June, Amaechi, who also ran for the presidential ticket, finished in second place.
Amaechi was designated as the infrastructure campaign’s special adviser by Tinubu’s presidential campaign council, but Daily Trust claims he hasn’t been taking part in the activity.
Since 2013, the former governor of Rivers State, who served as President Buhari’s campaign director general in 2015 and 2019, has been at odds with Wike.
According to a source close to him in Abuja, Tinubu and others around him weren’t treating Amaechi properly.
“It is an understatement to say he (Amaechi) is not happy. When Oshiomhole went to Port Harcourt, he asked the people to only support Tinubu and that for the other positions, they should support Wike. A similar thing was re-echoed when the Ebonyi governor visited the state,” he said.
However, he criticised the rumour that Amaechi was considering joining the PDP.
“It is not true that he has met Atiku. He is not leaving APC, the party he co-founded,” he said.
Steve Nwankwo, a party chieftain in the state, asserted that Amaechi’s influence inside the party will not be diminished by whatever arrangement Wike may have with Tinubu.
He said that Amaechi had worked hard to establish party infrastructure in the region and that he, along with his followers, were unafraid of the governor Wike-APC presidential candidate combination.
Wike’s collaboration with Tinubu, according to Mr. Darlington Nwauju, the APC’s publicity secretary in Rivers State, is only a rumour.
