The Governor of Rivers state, Nyesom Wike, has claimed former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, knelt down to beg his vice-president at the time, Atiku Abubakar, over his second term ambition.

Wike made this claim while he was flagging down a new road project on Friday.

He said: “In 2003 when President Olusegun Obasanjo wanted to run for a second tenure―a whole president wanted to run for a second tenure―he knelt down before his vice and said, ‘my vice, please, allow me to run.’

“You know one of the conditions he gave him? That Tony Anenih must be sacked as the Minister of Works and that Tony Anenih must not be in the presidential campaign council. Obasanjo obliged and sacked Tony Anenih as the Minister of Works and removed him from the presidential campaign council. This is a president,[and] his own vice giving him condition; a retired General knelt down and was given conditions.

“We (G5) are not even doing that; we are not saying sack this one; we are only saying that the constitution of our party must be respected based on what the national chairman said and based on what you told me in my house.”

The governor then dared the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to expel him from the party, saying “try and see how you will survive it.”