The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, has stated that he would not respond to calls by the leader of the Southern and Middle Belt Forum, Chief Edwin Clark, who called for him to be investigated and kicked out of the People’s Democratic Party, noting that the latter was not a member of the party.
The Minister stated this on Wednesday, during a media parley with newsmen, to mark his first year in office as the FCT Minister.
DECENCY GLOBAL NEWS reports that Clark, in a letter to the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Umar Damagum, on Tuesday, urged him to “immediately set up a probe panel/committee to probe members like Nyesom Wike, and if found guilty, to face the appropriate sanctions as prescribed by the party’s constitution.
Responding however, Wike said he did not recognise Clark as a member of the party, stating that the Ijaw leader had stood against his ambition to be Governor in 2014, despite which he had contested and won, and that no one had contributed to the progress of the party as he had.
He also said that there was nothing for him to be investigated for, noting that the elder statesman had called for a Southern Presidency, which he had heeded and also supported.
“I don’t know the party that Chief Clark belongs to. Frankly speaking, since I entered the PDP I have never seen him at any PDP meeting. I do not like to react to elder statesmen like that. But let me tell you the history so that people will know. In 2014 when I came out to run, Edwin Clark now said no, that it was the turn of the Ijaws, and that nothing would make me be the Governor. I said ‘Well, it is my right to run, and I fail and I come back’. But to the Glory of God, I ran, and I won.
“Since then, Edwin Clark has written me letters, but I have refused to talk to anybody. I said I will not answer. I was not a bad person when I championed for the Ijaw man to be Governor; I have become a bad person simply because there are issues, and I kept quiet.
“There is nothing Chief Edwin Clark an elder statesman has not said, but I will never, I will not reply to anything. If there is anybody who has contributed to the growth of PDP as far as today, it is me. So, when I read that he said they should investigate me, investigate me for what? He was one of those who was talking about a Southern president, and I supported a Southern president, so what are you going to investigate me for? Chief Edwin Clark was one of those who said power must rotate to go to the South, so what is the crime I have committed that I also believe in that?,” he said.
