The former governor of Rivers State, Mr. Nyesom Wike yesterday related how he survived after being poisoned at the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) campaign secretariat in 2018.
Speaking at the family thanksgiving service held at St. Peter’s Anglican Church, Rumuepirikom Deanery in Rivers State, Wike said the poison damaged his liver and kidney as diagnosed revealed in a hospital in Beirut, Lebanon.
He said he thought life was over for him but God saw him through, adding that he could not talk about his triumph in office as governor without attributing the victories to God.
Wike recalled that on a Sunday in December 2018 when he was due to attend the thanksgivings of his former chief of staff, Mr. Emeka Woke, he was incapacitated to attend the event because he had been poisoned.
“In December 2018, that day was the day my former chief of staff was going to have thanksgiving. And I was to attend that thanksgiving… From that Sunday, I never came down from my room. It was bad.
“There are words I don’t want to use so that it does not look somehow. 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 I told my deputy governor to speak on my behalf.
“People didn’t know what was going on. After that banquet, by 12 midnight, I was taken out of the country because I thought it was over,” he said.
Wike said he was flown to Beirut where the doctors who battled to save his life said his liver and kidney had been damaged.
“When we got to Beirut, the doctors looked at me and I was looking at them. They were not telling me anything; they said we have to do many tests.
“They came back the next morning and they said, ‘Look, it was bad’. My kidney had gone. My liver had gone and they (doctors) were looking at me.
”I never knew that I had been poisoned in our campaign secretariat. My intestinal (were) all black. The doctors did all they could do.
“But, through divine providence, what would have been a disastrous situation was miraculously turned around by God, who immediately began to restore the failed organs.
“So, the doctors did all they could do. The next day they came back, they said, ‘What is happening to you? They said everything is turning around.’
“My liver is functioning now. My kidney is functioning. To the glory of God, after about one week, they said I can now go,” Wike said.
The former also recalled that in the lead up to the 2022 PDP presidential campaign, his wife, Eberechi called him from London that she had been diagnosed with cancer.
He said was devastated by the news and even contemplated leaving the presidential race but his wife urged him on.
He said God healed his wife and also granted him and Rivers State a smooth political transition amidst gang up that was staged by the same people who promised to abide by the collective decision of Rivers elders on who would succeed him as the governor.
The thanksgiving service was attended by President Bola Tinubu who was represented by the governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu; senate president and his deputy, Messrs Godswill Akpabio and Jibrin Barau; the governors of Rivers State, Siminialayi Fubara; Seyi Makinde (Oyo), Hope Uzodinma (Imo), Ahmadu Fintiri (Adamawa), Francis Nwifuru (Ebonyi), and Caleb Mutfwang (Plateau), among others.
