The former governor of Rivers state and current minister of the federal capital territory, FCT, Barr Nyesom Wike, may be set to finally dump the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, to pitch his political tent with the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC.

Wike was appointed as the minister of the FCT by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in 2023 as a compensation to the role he played in supporting the president against the candidate of his own political party, the PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.

A very close ally of the minister disclosed that Wike would soon officially defect to the APC “and all of his allies within and outside Rivers state will join him in the APC. It will be a carnival kind of event. The event will be big and colourful”, he boasted.

According to the source, “Wike’s planned defection will be close to the 2027 general election.”

He stated that more prominent Nigerians were still being expected to join the APC to make it more formidable in a way that “other political parties will only have weak presidential candidates in 2027 who will not pose any serious challenge to Bola Tinubu”.

In his own words, “the minister will end up in the APC with all of us who are his loyalists both in Rivers state and other parts of the country. But that will not be now. He will delay it till it gets close to the time of the election. By that time, PDP must have been thoroughly weakened and cannot challenge President Tinubu”.

The source stated that the two major leaders left in the PDP, governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi and governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo states are all eyeing the presidential ticket of the party, adding, “this is what will bring further crisis to the party because Seyi will not concede the ticket to Bala Mohammed.

“Seyi Makinde has been the minister’s friend for some time now. It was Wike who influenced the payment of the N50billion by the federal government when there was fire incident in Oyo state. That money was not appropriated by the Oyo state government. It was Wike that facilitated the release of the money”.

Impeachment

Speaking on whether the impeachment proceedings on the Rivers state governor, Siminalayi Fubara and his deputy, Prof Ngozi Odu, would succeed, he said “the whole matter is beyond the FCT Minister.

The Assembly is determined more than ever before to remove the governor because he has failed in every aspect of the agreement reached.

“I was privileged to be in the meeting called by the Minister in Port Harcourt. Fubara was invited and all of us who are allies of the minister were there. We came back together as a political family. That meeting was in September last year. Wike told Fubara to make arrangement for another meeting in October which he agreed but later reneged.

“It was when he refused to do those things he agreed to do like meeting with the leadership of the Assembly and paying their due allowances that Wike decided to embark on the tour of the local government areas to tell Rivers people that they were no more together”.

He revealed that “when the state of emergency was declared in March last year, President Tinubu did not inform Wike. President called (Senator Godswill) Akpabio and informed him. The President ordered the sole administrator (Vice Admiral Etteh Ibas retired) to work with Wike.

“It was the sole administrator that paid the allowances that were owed the Assembly members. Gave them cars and paid for constituency projects. Sim has not paid them anything. He refused to implement the things he promised he would do for them”. (Saturday Vanguard, but headline rejigged)