The newly sworn-in Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, said he can not be sanctioned by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for accepting President Bola Tinubu’s ministerial appointment.
Wike, the immediate past Governor of Rivers State, stated this on Monday during his maiden press conference at the FCT Ministry’s office in Abuja.
It has been reported that Wike, a member of the opposition PDP, was one of 45 ministerial nominees screened and confirmed by the Senate weeks ago.
The former Rivers governor and some leaders of the PDP worked against the party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, in the 2023 election, which led to his defeat.
Before his appointment, there have been calls by some members of the PDP for Wike’s suspension over his association with members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and his acceptance of the ministerial offer.
Reacting to the calls for his suspension on Monday, Wike said he got approval from PDP leaders both at the national and state levels to accept the ministerial appointment.
The former governor described the move for his suspension as ridiculous, saying that he wrote a letter to the acting PDP National Chairman, Iliya Damagum, to be part of Tinubu’s cabinet and got approval.
Wike added that President Tinubu wrote to all the 36 state governors to bring names of people to appoint to his cabinet.
He said: “They said they’d sanction me that I took an appointment — that’s ridiculous.
The president wrote to all the 36 state governors to bring names of people to appoint. Didn’t PDP governors submit names?
Every PDP governor wrote a letter and nominated ten persons for appointment in this (Tinubu’s) government.
Before this appointment came, I wrote to the national party chairman, minority leader of the House of Representatives and Senate, zonal chairman of the party, my state chairman, and my governor.
All of them wrote me back: ‘Accept it’. I have it in evidence documented.”
