The political crisis in Rivers State has taken a new turn with the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, blaming Governor Sim Fubara for the development.
The former governor of the oil rich state has been locked in a feud with Fubara.
Although President Bola Tinubu had intervened in the crisis, Wike claims Fubara’s actions escalated it.
“Some of you do not even know that Mr President had invited us privately,” he said in Port Harcourt during a thanksgiving ceremony in honour of the state’s immediate past Commissioner for Works George Kelly Alabo.
“I said: ‘Do this, do this, do this, do this’. And you agreed before Mr President and you did not do it? And Mr President said, ‘Okay, let the larger state come’. We must allow our people the simple things. I’ve done my own part and I’m happy and I’m doing well in Abuja too.
“So, all of us should love this state but leave this propaganda, leave blackmail. There’s nothing I’m looking for in this state now. I have my own budget as FCT minister.
“It’s like a governor of a state. I have my own commissioners. By January, I present my budget before the National Assembly. I will preside over the expenditure. All I’m saying is if you’re a politician, play according to the rules.”
Those who attended the service at the Kings Assembly Church included some of the 27 Rivers State House of Assembly lawmakers loyal to the minister.
Wike’s comment is the latest in the Rivers political crisis. Wike and Fubara had reached a truce after Tinubu waded into the conflict. Some members of the Rivers State House of Assembly (27 in number) had also decamped from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Their defection left the house divided into two factions. But the Edison Ehie group loyal to Wike has withdrawn their impeachment move against Fubara.
However, with Wike’s most recent remark- which Fubara is yet to comment on – the end may not be in sight for the political crisis in the oil-rich state.
