Prof Nentawe Yilwatda, the National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, has dismissed suggestion that Governor Siminalayi Fubara is not in charge of the party in River state.
According to him, the Governor Fubara has not made an official complaint to that effect, wondering where such suggestions are coming from.
Prof Yilwatda also explained why the governor had not been officially welcome into the party, more than two months after he defected to the APC, saying the party had decided to first welcome some Northern Governors who defected to the party before the Rivers helmsman.
Governor Fubara defected to the ruling party in December last year.
The APC chairman spoke on Sunday on TVC programme, Sunday Politics amid the protracted political crisis in the oil bearing state, between the governor and his estranged political godfather and predecessor, Nyesom Wike, now the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT. in the oil bearing state.
Reacting to the claims that Fubara appeared unable to assert control as the APC leader in Rivers State, Yilwatda said he can’t do anything since the governor has not complained.
He said: “Is that what you’re told? I’m the national chairman. Who complained to you? What petition? I want you to give me one petition. Has he complained to you?
“When somebody has not complained, and we’ve not seen a physical petition, the media should not create a petition. And they become the petitioners, the judge, and the jailer at the same time.
Governor Fubara, the magazine earlier reported, had surprisingly decamped to the ruling party last December, from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, a development that has worsened the crisis of confidence between the two former allies.
Recall that Governor Fubara had immediately after his defection claimed that he had become the APC leader in the state, describing himself as 001, referencing his APC membership card.
The FCT Minister had, in his reaction to the governor’s remark rebuffed him, saying nobody made him the leader of the ruling party in the state. Wike is still a member of the opposition PDP, and has been at the middle of the crisis rocking Nigeria’s former ruling party.
Speaking on the political crisis rocking the state last week, Wike said he will lead President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s re-election campaign without Governor Fubara, saying the state’s helmsman is irrelevant on the issue regarding the campaign for the incumbent for a second term in office.
As the governor and his former godfather clash over who is incharge of the APC in the state, not a few Nigerians insist that the party leadership must do more to bring the two gladiators together for the benefit of the party as regards the next election. Anything contrary, the insist, is likely to affect the fortunes of the APC ,particularly the reelection of President Tinubu.
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