APC National Secretary Senator Ajibola Basiru has slammed FCT Minister Nyesom Wike, urging him to resign immediately from President Tinubu’s cabinet if he won’t stop destabilizing the party.
In a fiery Monday statement from Abuja, Basiru called out Wike’s “uncouth” attacks on his office after he defended governors as state party leaders.
Basiru argued Wike, a non-APC member, has no right to meddle using his ministerial leverage, insisting, “He cannot cause confusion in our party while in an APC government.”
This escalates from Wike’s warning to Basiru to stay out of Rivers politics amid jabs at Governor Fubara by APC’s South-South Vice Chairman Victor Giadom.
In a Facebook post on Sunday, the APC national secretary said; “I find it unfortunate that a member of the NWC (Giadom) was referring to a governor in our party as a ‘so-called governor of Rivers State’.
“The office of the governor is an exalted position, and whoever is occupying it must be respected, irrespective of whatever political differences you have.”
Wike, however, fired back, warning the APC national secretary to desist from meddling in Rivers State politics, declaring the state a “no-go area” for political interference.
Wike, according to Vanguard newspaper report, cautioned that those who failed to heed the warning could face serious consequences, urging Basiru to learn from the experiences of others who had attempted similar actions in the past.
“Let me warn those who come to Rivers State, because you have heard that we have N600bn, you come here, you collect, and you open your mouth to talk anyhow.
“I say it here, take this message to your National Secretary, leave Rivers State alone. Go and ask those who have done it before. Don’t take our support for Mr President for granted. You have to be careful with statements you make.
“Today, you are enjoying in Osun, you don’t know those who did the work. You are opening your mouth to talk about Rivers State. Anything you see, take it.
“Go and ask other people what has happened to them before. If your hand burns, no be me burn am o. This state is a no-go area. Take the one you have taken, stop making unnecessary comments”, he stated.
Basiru in his reaction on Monday said as National Secretary, he was “imbued with the responsibility to protect the interests of the Party and all its members and structures,” adding that “my comments regarding the affairs of the APC in Rivers State cannot be an undue interference in the affairs of Rivers State.”
He further declared that “as National Secretary, my activities cannot be confined to my home state, Osun State.”
Reacting to allegations credited to Wike that APC leaders were scrambling for a purported N600 billion largesse in Rivers State, Basiru dismissed the claim as baseless, saying, “this is nothing but cheap blackmail which has become his stock-in-trade.”
He defended his personal records, stating, “my background, track-record is that of unquestionable integrity,” and challenged the minister to “prove his allegations or we may meet in court.”
Basiru also addressed what he described as veiled threats from the FCT minister, warning that Wike was “not God and may be overplaying his political card.”
He said he would not be intimidated, declaring, “my faith is in God and will not succumb to cheap threats such as the one from Wike.”
The APC scribe added that he was “one of the young Nigerians that confronted Military rule, fighting for democracy, when the likes of Wike were nowhere in sight.”
On Wike’s continued public support for President Tinubu, Basiru maintained that such support did not translate into APC membership, noting that “his support for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, does not automatically make him a member of the APC,” Vanguard further reports.
He added: “millions of non-APC Nigerians also support Mr President and his own is no different,” warning that “his attempt to destabilize our Party in Rivers State will not be tolerated and he cannot bring the spirit of PDP into the APC.”
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