Nyesom Wike, the FCT Minister, issued a cautionary message to residents of Rivers State, advising them to refrain from engaging in political conflicts without understanding the underlying reasons.
This warning was delivered during a Sunday address at a thanksgiving ceremony for George Kelly Alabo, the former Commissioner for Works, held at the Kings’ Assembly in Port Harcourt, the capital of Rivers State.
“Don’t get involved in any fight between two politicians without knowing the real cause of the quarrel,” Wike said.
“In any facet of life, there are rules and they must be obeyed. As a pastor, there are rules you must follow, so also as politicians, we must follow rules. While I was governor I followed those rules, and that’s why I was able to succeed.”
Going on, the minister appeared to criticise the Rivers Elders position saying, “When I was running for governor, I was invited that some elders want to see me, when I got there I saw only two people. Just two of them constituted themselves as elders over the whole state. Now they’ve come back again as elders, don’t mind them.”
The minister also went on to question the agitation, saying those making it an Ijaw thing were ill-informed.
“When we wanted to go for it we were not shouting asawana, now they’re carrying flags and shouting asawana up and down. Are you people aware that Mr President actually called us privately and told us what to do, he didn’t do it and now Mr President then said okay, the larger house should come and they’re saying he does not have the constitutional right to do that.”
In attendance were some of the 27 lawmakers believed to be loyal to Wike as well as some of the recently resigned commissioners.
Rivers State has been a theatre of the absurd in the last three months with the state House of Assembly serving as the “boxing ring”. The rift between the state governor, Siminalayi Fubara and his predecessor, Wike, split lawmakers in the House with 27 of them decamping from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), a party in whose central government Wike currently serves as minister.
The feud also saw the emergence of parallel sittings, an impeachment plot against the governor, the demolition of the Assembly complex, and a gale of resignations of pro-Wike commissioners in Fubara’s cabinet.
The President had on Monday, December 18 met with Fubara and Wike at the Aso Villa in Abuja.
