The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Barrister Nyesom Wike has denied promising to deliver the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) into the hands of President Bola Tinubu ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Last week, Oyo State Governor, Engr. Seyi Makinde alleged that Wike is behind the crisis rocking the PDP, and the wave of defections by its governors, lawmakers, and others to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
He said that he regretted supporting Tinubu at the 2023 presidential election, and that the decision did not produce the outcome he had hoped for.
Highlighting the issues behind his disagreement with Wike, Makinde said it began after the minister told President Tinubu during a meeting that he would ‘hold PDP’ for him ahead of the 2027 elections.
During a media chat in his office in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, on Monday, Wike denied making such a promise to President Tinubu, saying that Makinde is ‘frustrated’.
He further said: ‘Seyi Makinde has never called me Wike. That was the first time I heard him call me that, and it is very unfortunate.
‘First of all, you must ask what that meeting was all about, and would have led me to promise to hold down PDP for Tinubu? Why did Seyi Makinde not come up all this time to say to the party, that see what Wike is doing o? Why didn’t he tell everybody about the so-called meeting?
‘And let me put the record straight, there was no such meeting between us. My humble self, the former governors of Benue State, (Samuel) Ortom; Abia State, (Okezie) Ikpeazu, Enugu State; (Ifeanyi) Ugwuanyi; and Seyi Makinde, we went to see the President after the election, to discuss certain things.
‘While we were there, I called the Chief of Staff to remind us of what we had discussed. So, it is completely out of place for anybody to have said that in a meeting; I said to the President that I will hold PDP for you. That is very unfair. Very, very unfair.
‘If you watch Seyi, you can see frustration. And this is a young man we have advised several times that politics is not like dealing with contractors. It has different rules. When did Seyi Makinde come into politics? There is nothing wrong with having an ambition, but it must be tailored according to the rules’.
According to Wike, Makinde ‘does not have the guts to tell us he wants to run for President.
‘Let him say he has told anybody, then, we will know. We are not kids. There are things you can do, and you think that people don’t know. They know’.
During the media chat at Government House, Ibadan, last week, Makinde also said that he had what it takes to contest for the office of the President if he so desired.
