The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Nyesom Wike, has denied promising to deliver the major opposition party, PDP, into the hands of President Bola Tinubu as preparations are ongoing for the upcoming general elections in 2027.
Wike clarified during a media chat at his office in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, on Monday, following an allegation by the Governor of Oyo State, that the FCT Minister was behind the current crisis bedevilling the Peoples Democratic Party, and the wave of defections by PDP governors, lawmakers, and others to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Makinde had said he regretted supporting Tinubu at the 2023 presidential election. He said the decision did not produce the outcome he had hoped for.
Highlighting the issues behind his disagreement with Wike, Makinde said it began after the minister told Tinubu during a meeting that he would “hold PDP” for the president ahead of the 2027 election.
Makinde stated, “I was in a meeting with the president and Wike… and I’m saying this, you know, in an open chat. The president’s chief of staff was also in that meeting and a few others… and Wike said to the president that, well, Sir, I will hold PDP for you, you know, in 2027.
“I was in shock. So we got up, we got to the veranda, and I said, ‘Wik,e did we agree to this?’ I told him from that day that I would never be a part of this. Wike can support him, and that is within his right, but it is equally my right to decide who I will support and what role I will play in 2027.”
Makinde said he later raised the issue with a mutual friend, hoping Wike would reconsider his stance.
He said, “I confided in a mutual friend of ours after that meeting. And I kept thinking, okay, the president did not ask him to ‘do this for him’. He was the one who volunteered to do that.
“When I was telling our mutual friend, I said, look, maybe he was talking about an errand that the president never sent him. So, let’s engage him. Let’s see if he will back off. But he never did.”