The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, has come out swinging, turning the heat on feuding blocs within the Peoples Democratic Party, accusing them of trampling on court rulings and cooking up what he painted as shady political deals.
His outburst follows a fresh round of infighting tearing through the party, with camps loyal to Seyi Makinde locking horns with the Wike-aligned faction over who truly holds the reins of the party structure.
The latest storm was triggered after the Wike-backed group rejected what it branded an illegitimate National Executive Committee meeting, alongside the unveiling of a caretaker committee said to be headed by Tanimu Turaki.
Standing its ground, the faction insisted no valid NEC meeting took place, maintaining that Abdulrahman Mohammed and Samuel Anyanwu remain the duly recognised party figures.
Fuel was poured on the already raging fire by the April 30 verdict of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, which voided the Makinde-backed PDP convention in Ibadan that produced the Turaki-led leadership, further muddying the waters over who holds legitimate authority.
Speaking during a media parley monitored by The News Chronicle on Wednesday, Wike took a sledgehammer to what he described as backdoor attempts to erect illegal leadership structures, insisting that only authorities stamped by the courts can steer the party’s ship.
He dismissed any talk of an interim arrangement as smoke and mirrors, branding such moves as a brazen affront to the rule of law.
“When will people stop being fraudulent? You cannot disobey court judgments and then turn around to deceive Nigerians that you have a legitimate structure. That is not how democracy works,” he said.
Doubling down, Wike warned against what he termed parallel power centres springing up like mushrooms after rain, stressing that legality cannot be conjured behind closed doors.
“You don’t form a leadership in your bedroom and call it a national structure. Let them open an office anywhere and call it PDP secretariat; I dare them. That is how you know what is real and what is not,” Wike stated.
He further alleged that certain party bigwigs are hell-bent on forcing through what he described as an unlawful caretaker setup, despite clear judicial pronouncements.
“The court has made it clear who should run the affairs of the party pending a lawful convention. You cannot ignore that and start setting up another structure. That is fraud, 419,” he added.
He also raised the alarm over what he sees as a steady erosion of integrity within Nigeria’s political and legal circles, accusing some influential figures of twisting institutions to serve personal ambitions.
