PORT HARCOURT/Nigeria: A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and former National Publicity Secretary of the defunct New Peoples Democratic Party (nPDP), Chief Eze Chukwuemeka Eze, has faulted claims that the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, is the leader of the APC in Rivers State, describing the assertion as baseless and politically mischievous.
In a statement made available to the media, Eze dismissed as inconsequential the opinion credited to former Rivers South-East Senator, Magnus Ngei Abe, insisting that neither Abe nor Wike is a member of the APC and therefore lacks the standing to speak on the party’s leadership in the state.
According to him, Abe defected from the APC ahead of the 2023 general election to contest the governorship under the platform of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), where he failed to secure victory even at his polling unit in Ward 16, Bera Town, Gokana Local Government Area. He added that Wike, on his part, has remained without a political home since his expulsion from the Peoples Democratic Party and could not deliver his preferred presidential candidate in his own polling unit during the last election, which was won by the Labour Party.
Eze maintained that leadership positions within any political party are strictly reserved for registered members and cannot be claimed or conferred by outsiders, stressing that the APC leadership in Rivers State remains an internal party affair.
He recalled that in 2019, Wike, then governor of Rivers State, allegedly used Abe as a tool to destabilise the APC in the state, a development he said denied the party participation in the elections through what he described as judicial manipulation.
Describing Abe’s latest position as embarrassing and unbecoming of a former senator, Eze said the declaration of Wike as APC leader in Rivers amounted to insubordination and a direct affront to President Bola Tinubu and the national leadership of the party.
“I feel very ashamed that Magnus Abe, once a highly respected political leader from the Niger Delta, no longer understands the hierarchy of a political party. By declaring Wike, a non-member, as APC leader in Rivers State, he has exposed himself to ridicule and challenged the authority of President Tinubu and the party leadership,” Eze said, adding that the APC leadership had already recognised Governor Siminalayi Fubara as the party’s leader in the state.
He concluded that Abe’s claim was reckless and politically motivated, urging party members and the public to disregard what he described as an attempt to curry favour and attract attention from the FCT minister.
