Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, has declared his intention to contest the 2023 presidential election.

Wike, who made this known when he visited Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom at the Government House in Makurdi on Sunday, said he is the best man to wrest power from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

He said, “To remove APC from power, I’m the person who can tell them enough is enough. We must take this power and I’m ready to take it for PDP. God is with us, that’s why APC keeps failing every day.”

He, therefore, urged stakeholders to give him their mandates and not to sell their votes, assuring that he has the capacity to, “face this evil government.”

He promised that if elected, security would be his topmost priority and also queried those founding fathers, who ran away from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and still want to be recognised.

Wike, who expressed confidence that PDP would win the presidency in the next election, said his decision to contest is to take back power from the APC.

He said, “by the time you ran away, you sold your share as a founding father, so you can no longer retain your position of founding fathers.

“I stood for this party. I work for this party since 1998. I have nowhere to run to and that’s why anything that happens to this party I take personally. I have never relented.

“If you’re running election, power isn’t given for free; it is taken. I’ve come out and I’m going to take this power from APC back to PDP by the grace of God.

“God has given us what it takes. That’s why God is making APC to make mistake everyday and that is how you know that God is with you.

“Those who want to be president now were the problems of the party in 2015. They ran away when the party needed them most.

“But I have stood and worked for this party. I have nowhere to run to because I take it personally that the party should not die. And I challenge anyone in a debate what they did for PDP.”

Meanwhile, during his visit to Benue, the Rivers governor donated N200 million each to Katsina Ala and Makurdi LGAs to support victims of recent fire outbreaks in the areas.