Federal Capital Territory FCT minister, Nyesom Wike has declared that peace has now returned to his state, Rivers, following President Bola Tinubu’s mediating influence on him and Governor Siminalayi Fubara.
He spoke on Monday during a media chat monitored in Abuja.
“Leadership is about give and take. You have to be able to swallow certain things. From what I have seen, there is no cause for alarm, except there is something that you have seen in your investigations as journalists, that I have not seen. For now, we have done everything we should do in the interest of Rivers State”, he stated.
Speaking on the outcome of the February 21 Area Council election in the territory, Wike said the leadership crisis in his Peoples Democratic Party PDP has now made it a big risk for potential aspirants vying for public offices, hoping to use the party’s platform.
Wike said; ” I also have said several times that, as it is today, my party appears not to have learnt, and that I was also going to support Mr President for a second term in office. I did not also mince words to say, as a minister, that my party never consulted me on the candidates they were going to present for the FCT polls. Only candidates who told me they were going to run the elections, and which are also candidates who were supporting the president, those candidates I would support. It was unfortunate they might be the same party, but I never said I was going to support any party. I said I was going to support candidates who support Mr President bid for second term. And remember one of the times this year I said, because of the crisis in PDP, it will be very difficult for candidates. I mean, it is like taking too much risk. Who do I know who actually will be the national party chairman who has the right to communicate to the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC, as required by the INEC guidelines? And so, taking the risk to run in a party that you do not know, who actually will be responsible for submitting your names to INEC, that would be a very big risk”.
Also, in a scathing assessment of the political landscape in the territory, Wike declared that the political future of the incumbent Senator, Ireti Kingibe, is effectively over.
The minister dismissed the senator’s influence and challenged the opposition’s credibility following the recent FCT area council elections.
Wike described Senator Kingibe as being out of touch with the realities of her constituency, mocking her engagement with the public by suggesting she spends her time reading love magazines rather than attending to serious issues.
To underscore his point regarding her lack of grassroots support, the minister alleged that only seven people voted in the Senator’s own polling unit, a statistic he used to argue that her mandate is hollow.
He said; “Remember, the senator that represents FCT had said that they will use the Area Council election to teach me a lesson. That FCT is not Rivers state. But let me answer one question before I go back. That I declare a curfew. You see, that’s why we have to be careful. I heard when the senator said so. I know she doesn’t read. She reads love magazines, all those things. If you heard my speech, I said by the approval of Mr. President. He gave them a work-free day so that you don’t go back late as against Saturday. But assuming, though not conceding, as a minister who represents Mr President, the security reports I have, they do not have it.
“In Senator Ireti’s polling unit, ADC got 2 votes, while APC got 3, PDP got 2 votes in the recently conducted FCT local government elections. Seven people voted in her polling unit. She was telling people that this government wasn’t doing well, but she couldn’t mobilize people to vote out the same government”, he stated.
Turning his attention to the wider electoral contest, the minister slammed the African Democratic Congress ADC for their performance in the FCT polls.
He described the party as being “late and unprepared” for the rigours of the election.
Noting that PDP remained the only major opposition in the country, Wike disclosed that while the APC won 45 councillorship seats in FCT, the PDP won the remaining 17, arguing that the ADC only makes noise on television.
Confident in the transparency and outcome of the process, Wike dared the ADC to challenge the victory of the APC at the tribunal if they truly believed the results were flawed.
Wike also berated the leaders of the ADC, particularly former Vice President Atiku Abubakar; former Anambra state governor, Peter Obi; and former Transportation minister, Rotimi Amaechi, accusing them of deception in the lead up to the next general election.
“I saw Obi, Atiku, and Amaechi going to campaign. What Amaechi did was to buy corn. A corn he has never chewed as a minister on the road. A corn he didn’t chew as a governor. You like to deceive the poor. It’s like Peter Obi today, If he’s doing birthday party today, he’ll go to IDP camp. When he was governor, did he not have birthday party? Mention one IDP camp he went to?, he stated.
The minister recalled that Amaechi served under the late President Muhammadu Buhari administration, wondering why the former minister was not loud on the issue of electronic transit of election results when the Electoral Act was being amended.
The minister also defended his decision to observe the February 21 FCT Council polls in some polling units, saying as the Chief Security Officer of the territory, he was well within his mandate.
“I am the governor of FCT, for security (reasons), I have to find out what is going on. I don’t need to be told. I was not a candidate in the election. As the chief security officer, I have the right to have a view of what was going on.
“And how does it influence (the election)? If FCT has, let’s say, 3,000 polling units and I went round 10, how does that influence the results?
“I wasn’t on the ballot and I never said people should vote for the APC. What I said was that the candidates supporting Mr President are the candidates I will support”, he said.