Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State has said that his defeat to Atiku Abubakar in the presidential primary election of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, was the will of God.

Wike said he almost scuttled the presidential primary after Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State was allowed to return to the podium to announce his withdrawal from the race.

Wike spoke on Monday at a reception in his honour at the Government House in Port Harcourt following his return to the state after primary in Abuja.

“I have never seen how people can violate procedures and guidelines. Somebody has spoken, it is at that point he was speaking that he would have said I am withdrawing. You don’t call him back,” Wike said. “I just said, ‘Look, this our party must not be destroyed.’

“It is God’s will, let us not bother ourselves so much,” Wike added.

He went on to accuse governors of the southern region of betrayal.

“Shame to those who will sell out their own,” he said, maintaining that “I have never seen a thing like that”.

“No wonder we cannot move on with development. Look at, a region ganged up. Then, your own region cannot gang up,” Wike argued.

“You became a tool to be used against the interest of your people and you think you have won. You have lost.”