What we’ll do if Wike’s ‘trouble’ continues in Rivers – PDP leaders

Members of the defunct Rivers State PDP Presidential Campaign Council in the 2023 general elections have declared support for President Bola Tinubu.

The group at a press briefing in Port Harcourt, on Thursday, also declared their “total loyalty and support” for Governor Siminalayi Fubara.

The group coordinated the 2023 campaign activities of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar in Rivers State.

Abiye Sekibo, the former director general of the campaign council in Rivers and former minister of transport, made the declaration on behalf of former members of the council.

Mr Sekibo said elections were over and that it was time for governance, particularly after the Supreme Court confirmed the electoral victories of President Tinubu and Governor Fubara.

“It is for this reason that we call on all our supporters to give total support and unalloyed loyalty to the Governor of Rivers State and Mr President.”

What we will do to Wike

Nyesom Wike, the immediate past governor of the state and now FCT minister, had aspired to become Nigeria’s president but lost the primary to Atiku.

After losing at the primary, Mr Wike formed G5, a group of five PDP governors that worked against the success of Atiku at the 2023 presidential polls.

Mr Wike, who backed the APC candidate, Mr Tinubu, in the election, also frustrated the efforts by the PDP campaign committee in Rivers to have Atiku hold a campaign in the state, including denying them a campaign venue.

But despite not supporting the PDP at the national level, Mr Wike aided the victories of PDP candidates in the state, including Governor Fubara.

He, however, fell out with Mr Fubara because of disagreement over the control of politics and governance in Rivers, a development that triggered a crisis in the state.

The former members of the PDP campaign, in a text of the press briefing, berated Mr Wike, whom they said publicly threatened to destabilise the peace of the state. They called on the president to call the minister to order.

“The FCT Minister has threatened publicly to destabilise the peace in Rivers State. The President has a duty to call him to order. We, the Rivers people, will not stand by while an individual decides that we will not sleep with our two eyes closed. The Holy book says, ‘He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind’. If Wike troubles Rivers people, he shall surely inherit the wind in overdose

“Today, we are sad because, in the last few months, the peace of our state has been disturbed by the foolish actions of one selfish man who believes that more than 7 million Rivers people are his slaves for electing him as their Governor for eight years. Our people are not a conquered lot and would never subscribe to the mentality of conquest. We also refuse to be divided along tribal or ethnic lines.

“We have nothing against Mr President compensating Mr Wike with the office of Minister of the Federal Capital Territory. However, we owe the President a duty to explain some facts and advise him on the character and machinations of his appointee.

“We wish to let the President know that this appointee ran a kleptocratic government when he reigned supreme as governor of Rivers State and may do the same in the Federal Capital Territory if the President looks the other way. We strongly advise Mr President to keep a close watch on the FCT Administration.”

The remark by the PDP leaders shows that the feud between Governor Fubara and Mr Wike is far from being over despite a peace deal midwifed by President Tinubu in December last year.

When PREMIUM TIMES contacted Mr Wike’s spokesperson, Anthony Ogunleye, he declined to comment on the allegations against the minister.