Former Federal Commissioner for Information and South-South leader Chief Edwin Clark has told the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ambassador Iliya Damagun, that Nyesom Wike must leave the party for it to survive. Nigeria Tribune reports.
He made this demand in an open letter to the leadership of the main opposition party in Abuja on Tuesday, pointing out how the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) is allegedly using his proximity to President Bola Tinubu to intimidate Rivers State Governor Siminalayi Fubara and the party.
The leader of the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), who read the letter at a press briefing in his residence, said he could not stand by and allow the minister to continue to hound the governor.
Noting that he was already a politician before Wike was born, Clark told Damagun that if they do not stop the minister, the situation will consume the party leader.
The elder statesman, who revealed that he is writing a book titled “PDP: To Be or Not to Be,” pointed out that after criticizing former Governors Bello Matawalle (Zamfara), Dave Umahi (Ebonyi), and Ben Ayade (Cross River) for defecting to the All Progressives Congress (APC), the FCT minister is now “dancing naked” with the same ruling party.
“After conceding that former Rivers State Governor Peter Odili and his wife made him what he is today and for which he will forever be grateful, he is now abusing them. I won’t allow him to destroy Rivers State,” Clark declared.
He alleged that having failed to use the APC to disrupt the PDP, Wike is now using the party itself.
Clark highlighted the attempt to subvert the ongoing case against the defected Rivers State lawmakers at the Court of Appeal, accusing the party boss and the National Secretary, Sam Anyanwu of pandering to the wishes of the FCT minister.
He noted that whereas the party’s national legal adviser was trying to diligently prosecute the case, the national chairman and the national secretary were allegedly sabotaging it.
Clark stated: “Mr Acting National Chairman, as a matter of fact, it is not just the National Legal Adviser of the PDP that is shocked about your actions; all well-meaning, reasonable, patriotic, faithful and honest party members, including many Nigerians, are equally shocked.
“The obvious anti-party activities of you and the National Secretary, both of whom are obviously tools in the hands of Barr. Nyesom Wike, used with all intention to bring down the government of Siminalayi Fubara, the Executive Governor of Rivers State, as confessed by Barr. Wike himself during his recent outing at Ogu/Bolo Local Government Area, the local government of Sen. George Sekibo, is palpable.
“The recent actions of Barr. Wike before and during the last meeting of the party in April, shows clearly that he is all out to destabilize the smooth running of the Rivers State government; he is ready to use his closeness to Mr. President to insult, intimidate and harass members of the party, especially those in Rivers State, who have decided to tow the right paths of both the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Constitution of the PDP, and who in fact were the backbone of Barr. Wike’s government as Governor of Rivers State, for eight years.”
The Ijaw foremost leader asserted that by virtue of section 109 of the constitution, the defected members of the Rivers State House of Assembly have ceased to be lawmakers, adding: “The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has been properly informed about the defection of the members.
“Yet you and your National Secretary wrote a letter to the Court of Appeal with the intention to aberrate that provision of the constitution.
“This is in itself is a crime against the state, and unbecoming of someone who is occupying an exalted position as the office of national chairman of a political party.”
Noting that Wike has continued his intimidate and insult of party leaders, he said: “This is just Barr. Wike’s modus operandi, to try to cow and intimidate people to submission, to silence them, so that they will withdraw from a just cause, giving him room to display his high-handedness, when he notices that he cannot buy such persons with money.
“Barr. Nyesom Wike’s arbitrariness knows no bounds. As a matter of fact, his actions and attitude have become unconstitutional. His desire to want to control Rivers State using ‘his structure’ is against Section 1 (2) of the 1999 Constitution.“
“As a Lawyer and Bencher, himself, Barr. Wike should know that he is breaching the Constitution of the country and his party, the PDP.”
He said Wike’s shenanigans in Rivers State, “wanting to make it ungovernable for Siminalayi Fubara to function as duly elected Governor of the State, “because he (Wike), according to his words, does not want to lose his ‘political structure’ is a clear attempt to want to ‘take control of part’ of the country.”
Clark informed that he wrote the open letter to tell the party chairman that rather than set up a reconciliation committee he should immediately set up a probe panel/committee to probe members like Wike, and if found guilty, to face the appropriate sanctions as prescribed by the party’s constitution.
He insisted: “To urge you to also purge yourself of all malfeasance. As Acting National Chairman of your party, you took your party’s NWC to court on the defection of the 27 members of the Rivers State House of Assembly, that because they did leave the PDP properly, they are still members of the party, even after the 27 members had publicly declared that they have defected, and had already been received by the APC. “Your position Mr. Acting National Chairman is antithetical to the position of Section 109. You took your party’s NEC to court, an organ you presided over. Yet you still have the presence of mind to remain in office, earning benefits that come with the office.
“From all indications, you are conniving with detractors of PDP to ruin the party, for the All Progressives Congress (APC). Allow Nigerians to decide what party they want through the ballot box.
“Stop colluding with Barr. Nyesom Wike to destroy the party. A day of reckoning will come for all of man’s activities.
“I wish and pray that you will not sell your soul and conscience for pecuniary and worldly gains, otherwise you, Barr Wike and your cohorts will be consumed by the Rivers State crisis.”
