‘Political Buccaneers’, Wike Slams Rivers PDP Leaders For Supporting Fubara
Nyesom Wike, minister of the FCT, has used the term “political buccaneers” to describe certain PDP party leaders in Rivers State.
From May 2015 through May 2023, Wike presided over the oil-rich South-South state. He recently criticised the PDP leaders in the state for publicly endorsing Governor Siminalayi Fubara, his erstwhile political son.
Abiye Sekibo, the Rivers State PDP leader; Uche Secondus, the former PDP national chairman; Celestine Omehia, the former governorship candidate; and Austin Opara, the former congressman, all publicly supported Fubara last week and urged President Bola Tinubu to warn Wike.
But in his reaction on Tuesday, Wike criticised Sekibo, Secondus, Omehia, and Opara, calling them “senior statesmen” despite their political careers having long since ended.
The minister of the federal capital territory was adamant that Secondus had severed ties with the PDP.
A gathering of transactional politicians was held the other day, and I happened to be there. Wike referred to them as “political buccaneers” and vampires.
“Do you know who is termed an older statesman?” Wike asked a journalist who had corrected the minister, asking whether he knew who the senior statesmen were. One must not be hypocritical to be an elder statesman; one must not “be here now and gone tomorrow.”
As far as Wike was concerned, it was paradoxical that some of those who had previously refused to back Fubara were now publicly endorsing him following the 2023 elections.
They are not content to merely serve a youngster today; they are also waiting for him as he travels. Is their character honest? How can the same individuals who deemed this governor inexperienced muster the courage to back him?
When the governor sought to pick up his PDP certificate, they circulated rumours about his rise to chairmanship and his possible pursuit by the EFCC, which led them to draft a petition in his defence. The minister stated that the governor’s visit to the PDP national secretariat was unexpected, despite their earlier claims that he would not be visiting.
Wike said that the PDP leaders’ “antics” were known to him. “These sucking political vampires make him want to be alone,” Fubara said. I feel sorry for them.
Their message to the people of Nigeria is clear: back Tinubu. Truthfully, I am an egotist. They were all powerful, but what did they do to help their own people? He asked.
Since they are now on opposing political sides, Wike added that “political issues” had strained his friendship with former governor Peter Odili. In Rivers State, he questioned when Odili was made the “revered leader” of the PDP.