Nyesom Wike, minister of the federal capital territory (FCT), has warned governors elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) against interfering in the affairs of the party in Rivers state.
Wike and Siminalayi Fubara, governor of Rivers, have been involved in a political tussle over the control of the state since 2023.
The rift between both politicians has created two factions in the Rivers house of assembly — with each camp electing a speaker loyal to the minister and the governor.
Wike spoke at the PDP secretariat in Port Harcourt during the party’s state congress on Saturday.
He was responding to a recent expression of support by the PDP Governors’ Forum in a communiqué issued in Jalingo, the capital of Taraba, for Fubara.
The PDP governors also called for a review of the party congress outcome to restore Fubara’s leadership role in the state.
But Wike warned the governors to steer clear of the political affairs in Rivers state.
“Let nobody be intimidated; I know how it is when you have worked hard and at the end of the day you are pushed away. I know how bad you feel,” the former governor of Rivers said.
“And let me assure all of you. Not while we live will anybody take away the structures of PDP from us.
“I hear that there are some governors who said that they will take away the structure and give it back to somebody. I pity those governors because I’ll put fire in their states.
“When God has given you peace and you say you don’t want peace, then whatever you see, you take. Prepare, because I have the capacity to also do the same thing in your own state.
“Whether you are from Bauchi, as far as I know that you are trying to put yourself in Rivers State, your hand will get burnt, and you will never sleep in your state; you will see political crisis.”
However, Fubara was absent at Saturday’s state congress, attended by some serving and past lawmakers at both federal and state levels.
