The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Mr. Nyesom Wike, has said that Nigerians will not hand over power to what he described as ‘’political gamblers’’ in 2027.
While referring to the Vice Presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress, Chief Rotimi Amaechi, Wike, who enumerated alleged financial malfeasance during the administration of the former governor, said Nigerians cannot entrust power to the hands of Amaechi and his presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar.
He accused the former Minister of Transportation of spending N14b on mosquito fumigation in the state, N53b on the proposed 1000-bed Justice Karibi-Whyte Specialist hospital and N419b on the sale of the Omoku gas turbine in December 2014.
Speaking at an event unveiling the candidates of the Rainbow Coalition in Port Harcourt on Tuesday, Wike said that the essence of the coalition across the states of the federation was not to cause crisis but to garner support from various political parties for the re-election of President Bola Tinubu.
“I have said and let me reiterate that the rainbow coalition means no harm but to bring people of all the various political parties together to support Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
“As the national leader of the People’s Democratic Party with the support of the national working committee, we have agreed that every PDP member in all the states should support President Ahmed Bola Tinubu”, he said.
Wike stated that there is no faction in the PDP, adding that INEC has recognised the leadership of Abdulraman Mohammed as the national chairman of the PDP. “So, every PDP member in Imo State, Kwara, Gombe, Zamfara, Ogun and every PDP member in every other state must support President Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” he said.
He boasted that there is no other party existing in Rivers State.
“Who wants to rule as president under ADC? It is Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. I ran together with him in 2022 presidential primaries. I had known him in 2019. I was one of the biggest sponsors of that presidential election. He is not a man that you can go to the bank with his word. He will tell you one thing in the morning and tells you another thing in the afternoon,” he said.
He further argued that ‘’as bad as Atiku ticket is, attaching Rotimi Amaechi as a vice worsens it. It is important to show your report card. Amaechi was a governor of Rivers state from 2007 to 2015. He told us in this state that no resident of Rivers State will suffer any mosquito bite. He paid out $10m which is N14 billion for fumigation.
“He brought down the specialist hospital we had then to build the 1000-bed Justice Karibi-Whyte specialist hospital and paid US39m (N53b), no foundation for that specialist hospital.
“We spent N68b for the monorail. No monorail today. We had a gas turbine in Omoku; the former governor sold it in December 2014 at the cost of US308m, not less than N419b. I came in six months after, and what was left was US308,000’’, Wike alleged.
