Nyesom Wike, the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) has claimed that elder statesman and the leader of the Southern and Middle Belt Forum, Chief Edwin Clark, is not a member of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
Wike said this in response to calls by Clark for him to be investigated and kicked out of the PDP.
The Minister remarked a media parley with newsmen, to mark his first year in office as the FCT Minister on Wednesday.
News About Nigeria reports that in a letter yesterday (Tuesday), Clark urged the National Chairman of the PDP, Umar Damagum, 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.”
Reacting to Clark’s call for his probe on Wednesday, Wike noted that he does not recognise Clark as a member of the party.
He recounted how the Ijaw leader fought against his governorship ambition in 2014.
He said, “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?”
