Exactly, nine days to the February 25 Presidential Election, Wike ruled out any last-minute deal or truce between the G5 and the PDP flagbearer.

The Rivers State helmsman also declared that he is not ready to sit with any member of Atiku’s camp to broker peace between the G5 or the Integrity Group and the national leadership of the party led by Dr. Iyorchia Ayu.

Wike also told journalists on Thursday morning that he owes nobody an apology to have hosted the Presidential Candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, in Port Harcourt after the latter’s rally in the state on Wednesday.

On the possibility of a last-minute deal with Atiku, Wike had said: “No, we can’t do that; it’s over! We have said it and there is nothing anybody can do about it now. They believe they can win the election. I am not ready to sit down with anybody again.”

Wike, a member of the G5, has not been on talking terms with Atiku since the party’s Presidential Primary last May in Abuja, Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

Wike, who placed second behind Atiku in the PDP Presidential Primary’s result, had reportedly felt undone by the last-minute withdrawal of Sokoto State Governor Aminu Tambuwal in support of Atiku’s bid.

The differences between the Atiku camp and Wike’s deepened when the Rivers Governor’s attempts to unseat Ayu as PDP National Chairman proved abortive.

With the emergence of Atiku, who hails from Adamawa State, North-East Nigeria, as the PDP flagbearer, Wike and his supporters had argued that the party could only ensure ethnic balancing and equity between the Northern and the Southern parts of Nigeria by rejigging the national leadership and sacking Ayu, an indigene of Benue State, North-Central Nigeria, among other steps.

Talks between both camps had become stalemated largely over Ayu’s continued stay in office as PDP National Chairman.

The G5 is made up of five aggrieved PDP governors, including Wike; Samuel Ortom of Benue State, North-Central Nigeria geopolitical zone; Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, South-West Nigeria; and South-East Nigeria’s duo of Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State and Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State.

Members of the quintet have consistently demanded that Ayu step down as PDP National Chairman as a precondition for them to support the 2023 presidential ambition of Atiku.

While the G5 has been quiet of late, Wike said that the group is not dead.

The group, according to him, has its own strategies and “not all of us will do the talking; that others are quiet does not mean we are not together”.

Wike added: “We know what all of us have agreed.”

He kept mum about which of the other 17 presidential candidates the group would support in next week’s election.

The Enugu State helmsman had on Tuesday received Atiku at the Government House in the state capital but was absent at the rally of the PDP presidential candidate.

On the rally, Wike said that receiving Atiku does not mean that Ugwuanyi had deserted the G5.

“Even before Enugu Governor received him (Atiku) in Government House, we knew about it.

“We cannot tell you the approach. Forget about what people are saying, the 25th is here. Everybody will see it,” Wike said, somewhat cryptically.