PDP At Crossroads As Wike, Fubara Face-Off Snowballs Into Full Blown Party Crisis

In an interview on Channels TV on Monday, Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Ibrahim Abdullahi, revealed that the party has written to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Nyesom Wike, summoning him to appear before the party’s Disciplinary Committee.

THE WHISTLER reports that PDP Acting National Chairman, Amb. Iliya Damagun, had on August 21, inaugurated the Disciplinary Committee headed by a former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Chief Tom Ikimi.

“Nyesom Wike is one of the persons expected to face that committee which is headed by no less a person than High Chief Tom Ikimi,” Abdullahi said, adding that the ex-Rivers State governor is to be held accountable for comments he made about the PDP Governors’ Forum.

The development indicates that the protracted supremacy battle between Wike and his successor in Rivers State, Governor Siminalayi Fubara, has now snowballed into a full blown party crisis.

The Damagun-led National Working Committee, NWC, which is believed to be sympathetic to Wike, had looked on as the minister – who continues to hold on to his PDP membership while serving in President Bola Tinubu’s All Progressives Congress, APC, government – ‘bullies’ Fubara.

With the party’s national leadership preserving the Rivers party structure for Wike – leading to the refusal of the PDP to participate in the state’s LG elections scheduled by the governor – reports emerged that Fubara is set to dump the PDP.

After an explosion rocked its Rivers State secretariat in Port Harcourt, the state chairman of the All People’s Party, APP, Chief Sunny Wokekoro, informed THE WHISTLER in an exclusive interview that aggrieved members of the PDP in Rivers – Fubara’s loyalists – would contest the state’s LG poll, scheduled for October 5, on the party’s platform. Wokekoro also revealed plans to ‘persuade’ Fubara to join the APP.

The explosion that rocked the APP secretariat in Port Harcourt was linked to the speculations that Fubara would defect to the hitherto unknown party.

Worried that PDP will lose Fubara, and by extension Rivers State, the party’s Board of Trustees, BOT, headed by a former Senate President Adolphus Wabara, on August 20, visited the Rivers governor.

The visit did not go down well with Wike, according to party insiders who spoke with THE WHISTLER. During the visit, Wabara told Fubara that the BOT will not stand helplessly while the party “is destroyed by a few individuals”.

The BOT’s visit to Fubara elicited an angry outburst from Wike on August 21, when, during a press conference to mark his first year in office, declared that Wabara was not worthy to be the PDP BOT chairman.

All these while, the NWC had kept quiet, refusing to condemn Wike’s conduct.

However, the crisis escalated after Wike decided to take on the PDP Governors’ Forum, particularly the group’s chairman, Bauchi State Governor Bala Mohammed.

It started with a meeting held by the PDP governors in Taraba State on August 23. At the end of the meeting, the governors reiterated their support for Fubara.

The PDP Governors’ Forum, in a communiqué issued after the meeting and read by Bala Mohammed, also called for a review of the party congress to restore Fubara’s leadership role in Rivers State.

Parts of the communique read: “The Forum notes the political impasse in Rivers State where court judgements are employed to determine the outcome of the party congresses.

“The PDP Governors’ Forum restates its stand with the Governor of Rivers State, and will engage the NWC of our great party to revisit the congress with a view to correcting the anomaly and allowing His Excellency Governor Siminalayi Fubara to take his rightful leadership position of the party in the state.”

Wike’s reaction to the PDP Governors’ Forum’s backing for Fubara was not surprising and he chose the occasion of the Rivers PDP State congress in Port Harcourt on Saturday, August 31, to launch a fresh offensive which has now escalated his face-off with his predecessor into a full blown party crisis.

Interestingly, Fubara and his allies boycotted the congress. But Wike presided over the event which had both current and former lawmakers, ex-council chairmen and other notable party members in attendance. Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, officials monitored the exercise.

The FCT minister threatened to ‘put fire’ in the states of PDP governors who interfere in the internal affairs of the party in Rivers State.

“Let me assure all of you, not while we live will anybody take away the structure of PDP from us. But let me tell people, I hear some governors who say they will take over the structure and give it back to somebody. I pity those governors because I will put fire in their states.

“When God has given you peace, you say you don’t want peace – anything you see you take. Because I heard they got some money from a signature bonus and so their heads are getting big that you will put hand in my own state. Prepare because I have the capacity to also do the same thing in your own state.

“Whether you are from Bauchi, I don’t give a damn, whichever state you are from, as far as I know, that you are trying to put yourself in Rivers State, your hand will get burnt, and you will never sleep in your state.

“So I have told them. Now you have started. When I will start, don’t say I’m the one trying to destroy the PDP. You are the one trying to destroy the PDP. Allow Rivers State to conduct the affairs of the party,” Wike said.

The governors have always been a major power bloc in the PDP, especially during the years when the party held power at the national level.

The party had lost power to the APC but apparently the governors retained their influence. For the first time since the Rivers saga ensued, a member of the NWC, in the person of the Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Ibrahim Abdullahi, came out to make comments that questioned Wike’s conduct.

Reacting to Wike’s threat against the governors, Abdullahi said, “He (Wike) was referring to something and it was clear for everybody to see that he was referring to the governor of Bauchi State over his interference in the determination of the congress in Rivers State.

“I don’t know if Wike will be fair to himself if he expects the governor of Bauchi, who is the chairman of the governors forum and the leader of the PDP, going forward to keep quiet in the issues affecting Rivers State because that is one of our states and we worked so hard to get that state. Wike should have been able to manage his words carefully.

“It was a very disappointing remark, we were not expecting him to say that and we are not with him on that.”

But it was also apparent that Abdullahi was unwilling to totally condemn Wike’s action. When, during the Channels TV interview, he was asked if the party leadership was with the Governors’ Forum or with Wike, Abdullahi said, “We are with Wike and everybody. What we are saying is that that is a very bad statement for Wike to make and we are not in support of it.”

Although the party had commenced a fresh reconciliation drive with the inauguration of a Reconciliation Committee headed by a former Osun governor, Olagunsoye Oyinlola, Abdullahi said reasons Wike would be facing the Disciplinary Committee include petitions bordering on alleged anti-party activities during the 2023 election.

“We have received petitions with regards to anti-party on those sabotaging the party all through the primaries leading up to where we are today. Those petitions have been aggregated across the country,” he said.

It remains to be seen whether Wike will actually honour the summons by the Disciplinary Committee.

Summon Strategy To Expel Wike

However, a source at the Wadata House, the PDP national secretariat in Abuja, told THE WHISTLER on Monday, that the summons is an opportunity for party stalwarts who are not comfortable with the minister’s excesses to finally get him out of the party.

“There are party leaders and elders who believe Wike should not remain a member of the party; they believe the NWC has not been decisive in handling his case because there are clear instances of anti-party activities and other conduct that is disrespectful of the party.

“The summons is an opportunity to take care of the situation,” the source, who pleaded anonymity because he is not authorised to speak to the media on the matter, said.

The source also explained that the summons extended to the minister, and the decision of the party to come public with the development, was at the prompting of the governors.

“It has now gone beyond Rivers State, it is no longer Wike versus Fubara. It is an issue that concerns the entire party. In fact, many influential members believe that the future of the party depends on how Wike’s issue is handled. So this is very important,” he added.

It was expected that PDP would have sanctioned Wike before now, especially after he took up a ministerial appointment in Tinubu’s government. In August, an elder statesman and foundation PDP member, Chief Edwin Clark, demanded that Wike be expelled for the party to survive.

Reacting to Clark’s demand, Wike said he would stay in the party and fight.

Responding to questions concerning Wike’s membership of the party, PDP National Publicity Secretary Debo Ologunagba told THE WHISTLER that “membership is personal”, adding that if the FCT minister is insisting on being a member of the PDP, “it means that our party is good”.

PDP At Crossroads As Wike, Fubara Face-Off Snowballs Into Full Blown Party Crisis is first published on The Whistler Newspaper