PDP Frontiers for Change and Progress has criticised FCT Minister Nyesom Wike, claiming he is the “real betrayer and architect of the crisis” affecting the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The organisation asked the former Rivers Governor to “honourably take his exit from PDP instead of staying behind to cause confusion”.
The PDP support group accused Wike of “standing truth on its head and playing to the gallery” in response to Wike’s accusation that Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State and his Enugu State counterpart, Peter Mbah, were betrayers and architects of the party’s lengthy problem.
Recall that Wike announced his withdrawal from all gentleman agreements on how to resolve the party’s leadership squabbles in a strong-worded statement on Sunday, pledging to fight till the end.
Wike stated in the statement that Makinde and Mbah made it impossible to resolve the party’s problem, accusing them of breaking a purported agreement signed by key stakeholders.
According to Wike, the stakeholders had previously agreed that Senator Samuel Anyanwu be kept as the PDP’s National Secretary and that any litigation challenging the Rivers’ Emergency Rule be withdrawn, which he accused Makinde and Mbah of breaking.
“To my surprise, Seyi Makinde had connived with Peter Mba of Enugu State to orchestrate the summoning of the meeting of so-called South-East leaders to recommend that if Ude Okoye was not adopted as Secretary, they would pull out of the PDP,” Wike claimed in his Sunday statement.
”I have now firmly decided to pull out of all agreements hitherto reached; I have decided to fight on until justice is attained”, Wike added.
But the PDP support group, in a swift reaction, accused Wike of “being smart by half” and “mounting smear campaigns to blackmail Mbah and Makinde”.
Emeka Yellow Ikpegbu, the group’s national coordinator, expressed surprise that Wike, who he claimed had “been the APC mole in the PDP, could accuse genuine and committed stakeholders of what he himself is guilty of”.
Ikpegbu stated that, contrary to statements made by the former Rivers Governor, “Wike and his bootlickers dragging the leadership of the PDP in some of the states are the destabilising forces on a mission to sink the party.”
“Instead of masquerading as a peacemaker while he is the one igniting the fire, Wike should better leave PDP,” Ikpegbu tweeted.
“Wike should stop pretending. We know his spirit has since left PDP after sabotaging the party in 2023. Now is the time to completely pull out of the party and not just pull out of the so-called gentleman agreement. We want him to also pull out of the PDP He has given us enough discomfort.
“We know Wike and his antics. Can he swear that he is not on a mission to destroy PDP? What anti-party is worse than a so-called PDP stakeholder openly working for the ruling APC against his own party? Who is causing the crisis in Rivers State? Is it to his credit as a good party man that less than two years after he left office as Governor of Rivers State, the PDP, which made him, collapsed in the state, and the state was enmeshed in chaos?”
The group further claimed that “Wike’s latest antics is to blackmail committed PDP members who are not willing to surrender the soul of the party to him and his APC allies.”
“Before now he was after the BoT Chairman of our great party, Senator Adolphus Wabara, for refusing to be cowed and bought over. Now he has shifted his attacks to His Excellencies, Governors Mbah and Makinde. Is it still in doubt that he is frustrated and on a mission to blackmail those committed to rebuilding the PDP?
“Can he deny that the APC is using him to destabilise the PDP so that his principal, President Bola Tinubu, will have a smooth sail in 2027? But they will be disappointed! We, and Nigerians, already know them for who they are, and they are frustrated because of the emerging signals.”
The organisation asked President Tinubu and the APC to “properly weigh the implications of trusting Wike”, adding that “if he could come out in the open to attack Makinde, who was his backbone in the G5 a few months ago, then he can do the same to his current lovers.”
The group urged Governors Mbah and Makinde, as well as all those genuinely committed to PDP’s renaissance, to ignore Wike and his foot soldiers.