Former Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, has disclosed that God saved him from a plane crash during the presidential election.
This was as Wike disclosed that God saved his wife from cancer during the 2023 presidential election.
On getting the cancer diagnosis from his wife, Wike said he informed the leaders in his campaign team, including the G-5 Governors that there was a problem and he was planning to quit the race.
The former governor said his wife encouraged him to continue with his campaign despite the diagnosis.
He disclosed this during a special Thanksgiving service organized by his family at the St. Peters Deanery, Rumuepirikom, Obio-Akpor area of the state, on Sunday.
Wike also disclosed that a mysterious fire gutted his wife’s room and destroyed her things while he was on a campaign trip.
According to Wike: “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”.
On the plane crash, Wike said while they were travelling to Abuja after the presidential primary, one of the engines of the aircraft exploded 15 minutes after takeoff.
“15 minutes after takeoff at the air force base, we heard an explosion. They locked up 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.
Narrating how he almost died of poisoning, Wike 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”.
Wike said he was flown to a hospital in Beirut at 12 midnight where doctors after running series of tests told him that his liver and kidney were all gone.
“I didn’t know I had been poisoned at our party’s secretariat”, he said adding that the doctors after some treatments returned and told him his organs had started working again.
He said 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.
The former governor said he kept most of the incidents secret to avoid frightening his supporters, who could begin to behave anyhow.