Ex-governor, Nyesom Wike, has recalls how he was poisoned at the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) secretariat in December 2018.
The former governor of Rivers State made the statement at a special Thanksgiving ceremony held in his honor on Sunday at the St. Peters Deanery in Rumuepirikom, Obio-Akpor.
He claimed the poison devastated his internal organs, hurting his liver and kidneys and nearly killing himin the process, if it hadn't been for God's intervention.
“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 immediately flown to a hospital in Lebanon, where doctors told him after a series of tests that his liver and kidneys were all gone.
He stated that the physicians released him after a week and advised him to return home, noting that he changed his schedule during his second term campaigning.
According to the him, everyone became a suspect after he opted not to enter any party leader's home during his campaigns.
The second instance of God's intervention in his life, he recounted, was when his wife contacted him during his presidential primary campaign to inform him that she had been diagnosed with cancer.
Wike stated that he informed the leaders of his campaign team, including the G-5 Governors, that there was an issue and that he intended to withdraw from the race.
However, he stated that his wife urged him to continue with his activities and that everything would work out fine in the end.
The Governor further stated that shortly after the primary, while on a vacation to Abuja with his wife, he was notified of how a mystery fire burnt his wife's room and destroyed everything she owned.
Despite all the challenges, he said: “Being a strong woman, my wife never showed it. But today my wife is hale and hearty. The cancer incident was the one I knew that God had done all for me”.
Wike also described how God spared him and three other officials from a plane crash on another occasion.
He claimed that when on their way to Abuja after the presidential primary, one of the plane's engines exploded 15 minutes after takeoff.
“15 minutes of take off at the Air Force base, we heard an explosion. They locked the cockpit. One engine is gone and the pilot said it was safer to turn back to Port Harcourt. Before we landed there were many ambulances and fire service trucks lined up. We landed safely by the Grace of God. I didn’t tell anybody,” he said.
The former Governor stated that he kept most of the occurrences hidden to avoid alarming his supporters, who may begin to act uncivilised.
Wike stated that he had decided to thank God for permitting a smooth transition and for delivering him victories in all of the state's elections.
"Ask my colleague how they felt that their candidates didn’t make it as their successors. Even those not sworn-in yet started tormenting their predecessors. But nobody is tormenting me."
The former governor claimed that there was a gang up in his party at the national level to arrest him if his decisions failed, and that his followers were terrified at times that they would all be in trouble at soms point.
He said that he obtained all of the forms for all of the party's elections, emphasizing that no candidate paid a dollar to purchase forms.
“I paid for every form. Nobody would say he paid any money to buy forms from governorship to House of Assembly. We agreed to work as a team. In the House of Assembly only one form, Senate same. We didn’t want to have anything called post election crisis,” he stated.