The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, has publicly accused state governors of misusing public funds to fuel the ongoing divisions in the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party.
His comments came as he endorsed the suspension of the party’s National Chairman, Umar Damagum, by a faction loyal to him.
The PDP’s internal conflict intensified dramatically when a faction, led by the embattled National Secretary Samuel Anyanwu, announced the suspension of Damagum and five other members of the National Working Committee (NWC).
This move was a direct retaliation against the NWC’s own decision to suspend Anyanwu earlier that same day.
Throwing his weight behind the faction’s action, Mr Wike stated that the party must confront the culture of impunity that has plagued it. “We cannot continue to allow impunity,” he declared during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today.
The minister then launched a broadside against PDP governors, though he did not mention any by name. He claimed that the significant increase in statutory revenue allocations to states was being weaponised for political warfare instead of development.
“I have. The problem we are having today in the PDP is that the kind of money in the hands of the governors is so much,” Wike stated.
“I praised the President for allowing so much money in the hands of states which has never happened. But I was thinking this money should be put in the development of our states, not to use the money to scatter a party that has built you, that has given you name today, where are we?”
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