Wike vows never to support Fubara again

The Minister of FCT, Nyesom Wike, has vowed never to support Governor Siminalayi Fubara again in his political life.

“I will never support Fubara in my political life again. It’s not about me. People laboured to put up a structure,” Mr Wike stated on Friday in an interview on Channels television.

Mr Wike, a former governor of the oil-rich Rivers State, who helped Mr Fubara to succeed him as Rivers governor, said Mr Fubara would not have taken the 50th position in the race if not for his (Wike’s) sacrifice.

“I sacrificed to talk to the Ogonis, I sacrificed to talk to several other people that let us go this way.

“You turned it into that I am asking for N50 billion, N100 billion. You turned up lies against me. I brought you up, put you here. Today, I turned out to be over-demanding,” the minister said.

Speaking further, Mr Wike said his successor was ungrateful for his support and that of others who worked for him to become governor. He further said Mr Fubara was destroying the political structure that brought him to power.

“In every political family, you run elections under people and people believe that we are all together. We must keep our political structure.

“Your rose through somewhere. Why do you deny it? It’s unfair, and you want me to sit down,” the minister said.

“We are all humans, ingratitude is bad, it doesn’t matter what anybody can label it,” the minister responded when asked about his demands to Mr Fubara. He added that he only told the governor not to abandon the people who “toiled hard” for him to get to that position.

Messrs Fubara and Wike have been at loggerheads over the control of political structure in Rivers.

The political feud between the two former allies has split the Rivers House of Assembly into two factions, with 27 members loyal to Mr Wike while three others are loyal to Governor Fubara.

Rivers currently has two houses of assembly, with each faction holding parallel sittings.

The political crisis in the state three months ago snowballed into violence. It resulted in the loss of lives after Mr Wike’s supporters took to the streets to protest against the dissolution of the former elected local government officials by Governor Fubara.

The former elected council officials, who are Mr Wike’s loyalists, were replaced by caretaker committee, following the end of their three-year tenure.