Dele Momodu warns Wike: PDP crisis: ‘Don’t push your luck too far’

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain, Aare Dele Momodu, has told the minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, that he is not the owner of the PDP and, therefore, can be disciplined if any infraction is established against him.

In a statement, the veteran journalist described some of the views shared by Wike in a recent interview as “arrogant lies.”

Momodu, who served as the director of communications in the Atiku/Okowa Presidential Campaign in the February 25 presidential election, said Wike was economical with the truth when he realised that the presidential ticket should go to the south.

Momodu asked Wike whether it was when Atiku Abubakar rejected his aspiration to be nominated the vice presidential candidate that he became an apostle of a southern presidency.

He advised Wike not to push his luck too far, as he was not above discipline by the 25-year-old PDP, of which he was not a founding father.

His words:

“After watching this interview last night, I immediately called Mr Seun Okinbaloye of the Channels TV and told him I wished I was in Nigeria and would have come to respond to the many arrogant lies he allowed Minister Nyesom Wike to get away with.

“When did Wike become the sole owner of PDP that he cannot be disciplined by a 25-year-old political party? It would have been nice to know if he founded the party or when he acquired majority shares in it since he now has more money than Aliko Dangote.”

Momodu challenged Wike to quote the PDP constitution’s portion, stating that power must come to the south.

He stated regarding Wike, “He should tell the world the chairman of the zoning committee that threw the contest open to all zones of the party and why he agreed to buy the presidential nomination form.”

“When did Wike become the champion of the south? Was it after his bid to be Vice President to Alhaji Atiku Abubakar was rejected or after requests to handpick the juiciest ministerial portfolios, like the one he got from Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, were rebuffed?

“Would he have continued to flagrantly badmouth Alhaji Atiku Abubakar if he had selected him as his running mate?”

He said Wike and four other governors were parading themselves as G5 while frolicking from Nigeria to Europe and back, saying,

“Three of them from Benue, Enugu and Abia lost their senatorial bids, spectacularly and resoundingly.

“Seun should have asked Wike, where are the other ‘suicide bombers’ today? Gone with the wind.

“The G-5 was always about one man’s ego and ambition. Wike claimed, contentiously, that he delivered Rivers State to Tinubu, only one state out of six in the South-south region. Was that enough to justify all this grandiloquent vituperation by Nigeria’s co-president, Wike?

“His three acolytes couldn’t deliver, and they’ve since been abandoned in the lurch!! What happened to their regular joint press conferences?”

Momodu alleged that Wike claimed all PDP governors sent ministerial nominations to Tinubu but said, “He should tell us how many of them were eventually approved, except the one he handpicked from a neighbouring state. Wike forgot to recommend any member of the G-5. No nominee of Governor Seyi Makinde was visible on the ministerial list.