The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, on Wednesday expressed disappointment at the statement credited to the leader of the Pan-Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), Chief Edwin Clark.
Clark had in a letter to the Peoples Democratic Party ([PDP) National Chairman, Umar Damagum, on Tuesday demanded the exit of the former Rivers State governor from the party.
The elder statesman accused Wike of using his closeness to President Bola Tinubu to exert pressure on the Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, and the party.
The minister, who addressed journalists at a media parley to mark his first year in office, said would not respond to Clark’s call for his sack from the PDP.
Wike, however, noted that the former federal commissioner for information was not a member of the PDP.
He also recalled that Clark stood against his governorship ambition in 2014.
Wike said: “I don’t know the party that Chief Clark belongs to. 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.
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“ 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?”
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