The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democ ratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, has urged the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, to stop speaking while he is under the influence of alcohol.

Wike had while addressing supporters at the Emohua Local Government Area of Rivers State on Friday stated that he was drinking a 40-year-old whiskey when Atiku led protesters to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) headquarters in Abuja in a protest.

The PDP candidate had led other leaders of the party to protest alleged irregularities that marred the conduct of the presidential election.

The country’s main opposition party had asked that results collated from the exercise be cancelled and elections be redone in areas that had problems.

“As they were protesting, I just sat down and took a 40-year whisky. I called some of my friends and opened the 40-year-old whiskey as they were protesting,” Wike had said.

In a statement on Sunday by his Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shuaibu, Atiku urged the governor to stay off alcohol as “it had not only affected his voice and demeanour but also his thinking faculty.”

“Governor Wike has confirmed what we all know. That he is a drunkard. The protest that was led by Waziri Atiku Abubakar on Monday, March 6, 2023, was against the stealing of the mandate of the Nigerian people, which in itself was a noble cause.

“For the sake of clarity, the protest occurred around 11.30am. Governor Wike says he was drinking whisky during the protest at 11.30am on a Monday. This reveals the sort of man he is – a dipsomaniac who abandons his official duties on Monday morning to binge on whisky.

“This explains the reason for his coarse voice, which is similar to that of a motor park tout. It is obvious that Governor Wike also dances under the influence of alcohol. No wonder it is characterised by aesthetic vulgarity.

“It is a common rule that you do not drink and drive. Unfortunately, a drunkard is the one steering the wheel of governance in Rivers State. This is more disturbing because he is married to a judge. Indeed, the term, as sober as a judge, could not even rub off positively on the cantankerous governor.”

The statement said Wike’s vituperations and wailings had nothing to do with ensuring that the south produced the next president.

“Wike’s grouse with Waziri Atiku Abubakar has nothing to do with zoning. He is only wailing because he lost the presidential ticket of the PDP in a fair contest. After losing, he deceived four other governors to join his futile campaign.

“Three governors of the G5 failed woefully at their senatorial elections, including Governor Okezie Ikpeazu, who, as a sitting governor, came a distant third in the Abia South senatorial election. For Governor Seyi Makinde, his ambition is hanging by a thread after his misadventure cost the PDP to lose all three senatorial elections.

“Wike has not held a single meeting with his G5 members having dumped them since their defeat. He has been rejoicing over the outcome of the polls even though his men have all lost. This is the sort of man he is, and yet he claims not to be committing anti-party infractions.”

Atiku also lambasted Wike for admitting on video to have manipulated the outcome of the elections in his state in the last election.

He commended the nearly 300,000 Nigerians that had signed a petition on Change.Org to demand that the United States, the United Kingdom, and the European Union impose a visa ban on him.

“At this point, I would love to commend the nearly 300,000 Nigerians who have signed the petition for Wike’s visa sanction. This is a step in the right direction. This is a man who in every election he has ever been involved in has been characterised by rigging and violence so much so that under his watch, the media tagged his state, ‘Rivers of Blood’.

“This is a man who, during a leaked phone conversation with Governor Ayodele Fayose, admitted to ‘killing everyone we can kill’. This is a man who talks down on traditional rulers in his state, arrests those he doesn’t agree with, seals off the buildings of his opponents and even revokes C of O of those in his bad books. May Nigeria never see such an emperor again who uses violence to subdue his people for political gains.”