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PDP Has Tolerated Wike for Too Long – Party’s Ex-Auditor Nnaji
A former National Auditor of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP,) Barr Ray Nnaji, has warned that the party has tolerated the FCT Minister Nyesom Wike for too long.
Nnaji stated this during a media interview, while offering his view on the crisis plaguing the party.
This comes amid the challenge from Wike daring any governor or leader of the PDP to publicly call him a mole.
The minister threw the challenge when he appeared on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme.
He had previously dared State governors elected under the platform of the PDP over his threat that he will put fire in their states.
Wike said he had no apology to anybody, insisting that heaven will not fall.
However, lamenting on what has become of the party, the former auditor stated that no right member of the PDP will commend what’s happening in the party, saying he doesn’t see Wike being in APC and the PDP at the same time.
Nnaji also said that the PDP wasted time in replacing its former National Chairman, Iyorchia Ayu, insisting that the vacuum created room for the crisis.
He said: “No right member of the PDP will commend what’s happening in the party.
“I don’t see Wike being in APC and the PDP at the same time. It’s the soul of Rivers State they are pursuing for the purposes of 2027.
“You know quite well that Wike used his power as a former governor to make sure that APC was assisted to come to power, that was why he was compensated with a ministerial appointment.
“He (Wike) wanted to pull the structure he had then into the APC. That explains why the APC dissolved its Rivers state executives, which prompted the members to go to the court.
“Wike himself, and those 25 State House of Assembly members who defected, when they found out that others weren’t following them, the problem in the state started.
“The main fact is that the acting Chairman failed to do what he ought to do. It cannot be blamed on the acting Chairman alone, it should be blamed on the Party entirely because the constitution is very clear.
“When a vacancy exists, what do you do? Of course, the constitution provided answers to all those things, but they failed to do it.
“Iyorchia Ayu was from North Central, when he left the position, Damagun came just to fill the gap.
“The party shouldn’t have wasted time in replacing Iyorchia Ayu. The party would have replaced Ayu with another person from that zone. If that would have been done, I don’t think we would have entered into this crisis.
“I don’t think it is as difficult with the party as it was with Amodu Sheriff, which ended up in the Supreme Court before the 2019 election.
“I still believe that the party will still come out of it, even though they didn’t do what they ought to have done early enough.”
On setting up a reconciliation committee, Nnaji had this to say: “I don’t know who they are reconciling with. Is it Wike or the governor?
“From the look of things, the government is not ready to play ball, when Wike wants the structure. And if you give Wike the structure, the governor becomes a follower of Wike.
“That is not what the governor wants, he’s supposed to be the leader of the party in the State and take charge.
“Wike, seeing what’s happening, believes he has done his parallel congress and produced a structure. Of course, the governor has his own structure, who the national picks will be another issue.
“I learnt Wike was invited to the disciplinary committee, I don’t know the outcome of the invitation but they waited too long to allow Wike to this point.
“He was not part of the formation of the party but he’s the most beneficiary of the PDP. Going ahead to seek the destruction of the party he has benefited a lot from doesn’t augur well for him, especially in the future.
“If he destroys PDP, who’s sure the APC will be a comfortable place for him to stay?
“I don’t think he’s thinking from that angle. It is his personal interest that matters most for him now.
“The PDP has to make sure it puts its house in order to see if it can liberate the country come 2027.”
A former Acting Accountant-General of the Federation (AGF), Anamekwe Nwabuoku, who is standing trial for alleged misappropriation of ₦1.96 billion, has appealed to the Federal High Court in Abuja to grant him time to negotiate a settlement with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Nwabuoku, who is facing a nine-count charge, made the request after EFCC’s lawyer, Ekele Iheanacho, SAN, informed the court that the prosecution was ready to proceed with five additional witnesses.
Although he was represented at the hearing by his lawyer, Isidore Udenko, the defendant personally addressed the court, stating that he had hired a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) to facilitate an out-of-court settlement with the anti-graft agency.
Udenko noted that the trial had commenced only after the defendant’s previous attempt to reach an agreement with the EFCC fell through.
Immediate past Governor of Kaduna State, Malam Nasir el-Rufai, has stated that the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu is planning to tarnish his reputation because of his 2031 Presidential ambition.
Speaking in an interview with Arise TV on Monday, el-Rufai alleged that Ribadu is collaborating with Governor Uba Sani of Kaduna, and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission to destroy his image
“This project of destroying Nasir el-Rufai is Nuhu Ribadu’s conception. He is the architect and builder of that project. He is the one working with Uba Sani to implement it. So far, it has been frustrating for them,” el-Rufai said.
“Somebody wants to destroy my reputation. Why? Nuhu Ribadu wants to be president in 2031. He has to eliminate every northerner that he thinks is on the radar.”
Following the revelation by former Military President, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida in his book, “A Journey in Service” that the 1966 coup was not an Igbo coup as alleged, Igbo apex group, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, on Sunday, February 23, has demanded an apology and N10 trillion as compensation from President Bola Tinubu to the Igbos.
In his book, Babangida revealed that the primary objective of the coup plotters was to release Chief Obafemi Awolowo from prison and install him as Prime Minister. He emphasized that the involvement of officers from different ethnic backgrounds, including non-Igbo officers such as Major Adewale Ademoyega, Captain Ganiyu Adeleke, and Lieutenants Fola Oyewole and Olafimihan, further invalidates the claim that it was an Igbo-driven coup.
Additionally, some senior Igbo officers were also victims of the coup, such as Lt-Col. Arthur Chinyelu Unegbe, who was executed by fellow officer Major Chris Anuforo. This further weakens the argument that the coup was designed to serve Igbo interests.
Furthermore, Babangida pointed out that the coup was ultimately crushed by Major John Obienu, an officer of Igbo extraction, reinforcing the argument that it was not an ethnic uprising but rather a failed military intervention with specific political objectives.
Reacting, Ohanaeze noted that the story surrounding the coup at the time, unleashed disastrous repercussions on the Igbo people, which ultimately led to the cataclysmic horrors of the Biafra War.
In a statement by the Deputy National President of the Ohanaeze faction, Okechukwu Isiguzoro, the group noted that the apology and compensation had become necessary due to the ”staggering loss of life, with approximately three million Igbo—predominantly innocent women and children—slaughtered during the war.”
It stated that the revelations by IBB would compel Nigerians to confront the alleged ‘’stark injustices perpetrated against the Igbo people.”
The statement added that the demand for ten trillion naira in reparations remained steadfast, stressing that the figure was not arbitrary but a symbolic recognition of the ‘’huge losses the Igbo people had endured since the creation of Nigeria.”
The statement read:
“The apex Igbo socio-cultural organization, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, extends its profound appreciation to General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (IBB) for his remarkable courage in officially declaring that the January 1966 coup was unequivocally not an Igbo coup.
“This pivotal acknowledgement is not merely a correction of historical nomenclature but a significant moment in our collective pursuit of justice and reconciliation, signalling a potential end to the historical vindictiveness and cruelty that have been pervasive in Federal Government policies towards the Igbo Nation.
“His forthright exemption of the Igbo from the egregious classification as enemies of the Northern region in the aftermath of the coup is both timely and necessary, even if it arrives decades later.
“The mislabeling of the January 1966 coup has unleashed disastrous repercussions upon the Igbo people, most tragically culminating in the July 1966 counter-coup, which decimated a military Head of State of Igbo descent.
“The staggering loss of life, with approximately three million Igbos—predominantly innocent women and children—slaughtered during this conflict, continues to reverberate through our collective consciousness.
“Furthermore, even in the post-Biafra era, the Igbo Nation continues to grapple with systemic injustices, evidenced by acute marginalisation that leaves us with the smallest representation of states within the Nigerian federation.
“The political conspiracies designed to deny the Igbo the rights to ascend to the highest office in the land—Nigeria’s Presidency—the chronic economic neglect symbolised by the closure of the Calabar seaport, the inoperative state of several ports in Igbo land, the implementation of a discriminatory quota system, and the conspicuous absence of functional international airports in the Southeast starkly illustrate the Federal Government’s long-standing policy of exclusion.
“In light of these egregious injustices and the deliberate neglect exhibited by successive administrations, Ohanaeze Ndigbo hereby restates its demands, as articulated previously during the Justice Oputa-led Judicial Commission for the Investigation of Human Rights Violations Panel in 1999.
“We assert that the Nigerian Federal Government, under General Yakubu Gowon, conducted indiscriminate and unjustified bombardments in Igbo territory during the Nigeria-Biafra War, resulting in overwhelming loss of life. These historical realities establish an irrefutable case for the reparations we seek.
“The present Federal Government, led by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, must recognise this moment as an opportunity to extend a public and unequivocal apology on behalf of previous military regimes. Our demand for ten trillion naira in reparations remains steadfast.
“This figure is not arbitrary but a symbolic recognition of the indelible losses the Igbo people have endured. The time has come for true acknowledgement of these historical wrongs, which can only be rectified through both reparations and sincere apologies.”
Source: LIB
