The immediate past Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, has revealed that he was poisoned at the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) secretariat in December 2018.
This was disclosed by Wike during a special Thanksgiving service on Sunday, June 18, 2023, organized by his family at the St. Peters Deanery, Rumuepirikom, Obio-Akpor, where he revealed some life-threatening scenarios he kept as secrets during his eight-year tenure.
Wike said the poison ravaged his internal organs, affecting his liver and kidneys and almost killed him but for God’s interventions.
Narrating how he almost died of poisoning, Wike said,
“God was in charge, everybody who knew how we came to power in 2015, knew it was turbulent. But God saw us through. When you are in office, many people think things are going well with you. Nobody wants to find out the problems you are facing as a human.
“In December 2018, it was a day my former Chief of Staff was going to have Thanksgiving. I was to attend that Thanksgiving. From that Sunday I never came down from my room. It was bad.
“But those who attended the January 1st state banquet of 2019 will know that I never spoke that day. I just sat down there and told the Deputy Governor to speak on my behalf. I thought it was over.’’
Wike said he was flown to a hospital in Beirut at 12 midnight where doctors after running a series of tests told him that his liver and kidney were all gone.
He said that he didn’t know he had been poisoned at the PDP’s party secretariat, adding that the doctors after some treatments returned and told him his organs had started working again.
He said the doctors discharged him after about a week and asked him to return home, noting that he altered his itinerary during the campaigns for his second term.
The former Governor said everybody became a suspect as he decided that he would not enter any party leader’s home during the course of his campaigns.
Former Governor Wike also revealed that there was a gang-up in his party at the national level to arrest him if his decisions had failed adding that at some points his loyalists were scared that they would all be in trouble.
He said all the governorship aspirants signed an agreement drafted by the party elders that they would support the choice of the party for the governorship poll.
However, Wike noted, “When somebody was chosen, there was a gang-up. They moved to Abuja and started plotting how they would arrest me after winning at the centre. All evil plots against me failed.
“Those close to me were worried. But I told them to have faith they would not be finished. God never abandoned us.Today we have a governor, who is our successor. I don’t look back because I know I am protected everywhere.’’
Those in attendance at the Thanksgiving service include Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State, who represented President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the Senate President Godswill Akpabio; Deputy Senate President, many senators, over 35 members of the House of Representatives, many former Governors, former ministers, royal fathers, captains of industries, the PDP among other Very Important Persons (VIPs).
