The immediate past Rivers Governor, Nyesom Wike, on Sunday, revealed that he was poisoned at the secretariat of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in December 2018.
The former governor disclosed this at a special Thanksgiving service on Sunday organised by his family at the St. Peters Deanery, Rumuepirikom, Obio-Akpor.
Dignitaries, who attended the service, listened in shock as the former Governor disclosed secrets he kept about his health.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was represented at the event by Lagos Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu.
The service was attended by the Senate President Godswill Akpabio; Deputy Senate President, Jibrin Barau, Peter Odili, James Ibori, many senators, over 35 members of the House of Representatives, many former Governors, former ministers, royal fathers, captains of industries, the National Working Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) among others.
Narrating how he almost died of poisoning, Wike said the poison ravaged his internal organs, affecting his liver and kidneys and almost killed him but for God’s interventions.
He 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.”
Speaking further, the former Minister said he was flown to a hospital in Beirut, Lebanon, at 12 midnight where doctors after running series of tests told him that his liver and kidney were all gone.
He said that the doctors after some treatments returned and told him his organs had started working again.
According to Wike, 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.
Wike also recalled when his wife called him during his presidential primary campaign and told him that she had been diagnosed of cancer.
Wike said he called the leaders in his campaign team including the G-5 Governors and told them that there was a problem and he was planning to quit the race.
But he said his wife encouraged him to continue with his campaigns that all would be well.
He also recalled that after the primary when he was on a trip to Abuja in the company of his wife, he got information that a mysterious fire gutted his wife’s room and destroyed everything she had as a woman.
Wike 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 further recalled that on another occasion, God saved him and three other leaders from a plane crash.
He said while they were travelling to Abuja after the presidential primary, one of the engines of the aircraft exploded 15 minutes after take-off.
“15 minutes of take off at the airforce 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 said 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 disclosed that all the forms for all elections in the party were acquired by him noting that no candidate of the party paid a dime to buy 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 said.
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
But Wike said: “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”.