Chuks Okocha in Abuja and Blessing Ibunge in Port Harcourt
A former National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Uche Secondus, has said the Minister of the FCT, Nyesom Wike, has a “well-known trait” of being economical with the truth and dishing out half-truths.
This was as the Rivers State Governor, Mr Siminalayi Fubara, and the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), have declared as fake, the purported list of party caretaker committee members for the state, circulating on social media.
In a statement, yesterday, Secondus, who described the FCT minister as ‘a showman noted for double-speaking’ condemned Wike for criticising “revered political leaders” in Rivers State, saying the minister was “Nigeria’s most transactional politician.”
Wike and his successor, Fubara, had been embroiled in a crisis over the control of political structures in Rivers State.
Last week, Secondus, Abiye Sekibo, director-general (DG) of the party’s presidential campaign council in Rivers; Celestine Omehia, a former governorship aspirant; and Austin Opara, an ex-lawmaker, declared support for Fubara and called on President Bola Tinubu to caution Wike.
But reacting to the development, Wike described them all as “expired politicians” who were not worthy of being called “elder statesmen.”
However, in serving his salvo, Secondus through his media adviser, Ike Abonyi, said Wike’s performance at the media engagement was an exhibition of “his well-known trait of being economical with the truth, harbinger of half-truths and a mastermind of outright falsehoods just to hoodwink unsuspecting members of the public to believe his brew by playing to the gallery and drawing some unwarranted applause and attention.”
Secondus further described the FCT minister as “a showman noted for his double-speak, twisting of facts to score some cheap political points, and someone who stands the truth on its head.
“Wike’s utterances during the Abuja parley as “appalling and rather unfortunate, more so (when) he characterised our revered political leaders of Rivers State, casting them in a bad light by referring to them as transactional politicians, political vampires, and political buccaneers.”
Meanwhile, Fubara and the PDP had declared as fake, the purported list of party caretaker committee members for the state, circulating on social media.
Speaking during the flag-off of the Port Harcourt International Automobile Spare Parts Trading and Commercial Centre project, yesterday, in Port Harcourt, Fubara said the list was the handiwork of cheap publicity seekers and agents of crisis.
He said the imagination of the detractors would not stand, explaining that the national leadership of the party had met recently and agreed that in states where the tenure of PDP Executives had expired should continue to maintain the officers as caretakers for the next three months.
Fubara clarified that the decision which awaited ratification by the National Executive Council (NEC), did not approve that new names should be added to the already existing number of officers, or any subsisting officer(s) removed.
“I know that a lot of you saw something flying in the social media, dailies. Let me brief you. We hard a meeting, and we agreed that, not just in Rivers State, but in all the States affected, that the Executive Councils (of PDP) should be extended for three months.
“This extension is not meant to bring in new names. The extension also did not say that you are working without the authority of the Governor. So, for those lists that you saw and those ones altered, I can assure you that they are not going to stand.”
Also, in a statement by the state Publicity Secretary of PDP, Sydney Gbara, the PDP insisted that “The fake list in question is the handiwork of desperate empty drums, making loud noise just to infuriate our supporters and cause unnecessary anxiety in the political space. The concocted list is from enemies of the State who used looted state funds to procure it.”
