Wike Accuses PDP Of Corruption; Threatens To Fight The Party To A Standstill

By Gideon Njoku

From a high profile member of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, comes a serious allegation of corruption against a Committee of the Party.

The allegation came from the Rivers State Governor,  Nyesom Wike.

He also warned the PDP not to mess with Rivers state as, according to him, the State is capable of facing the party squarely.

The governor issued the warning in Portharcourt on Tuesday, remarkably, on the day the Presidential Election Tribunal  dismissed the petition filed by his party and its Presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, against the re-election of President Muhammadu Buhari for a second term in office.

His warning and allegation stem from his anger over a Panel set up by the party to investigate the emergence of Hon. Ndudi Elumelu as the Minority Leader in the House of Representatives.

Elumelu, from Delta state, had clinched the position against  Hon.  Chinda, from Rivers State, favoured by the Governor for the position.

Wike and his supporters had decried the process which produced Elumelu as untidy. The National leadership of the party, which, allegedly,  was not in support of Elumelu’s emergence, had suspended him, and some others, and set up a panel to probe the circumstances through which Elumelu emerged.

Since then, it has been a ding-dong affair. The Committee seem not to have taken off properly, not to talk of proffering any solution.

A former Deputy Speaker of the House, Hon. Austin Opara, who was named as a member of the Committee,  later quit his membership of the Committee, allegedly, over pressures from the home front.

On Tuesday, Wike dismissed the Committee as patently corrupt, the most corrupt, according to him, in the history of party politics.

Wike: “The committee set up by the PDP on the illegal emergence of Ndudi Elumelu is the most corrupt committee  ever set up by the party. We thank our worthy son, Austin Opara, for withdrawing from the committee, so that he is entangled in the illegal activities of the tainted committee.”

The governor also had some hard words for the PDP.

“We are warning PDP to be careful  not to toy with Rivers State. The state has all it takes to withstand the PDP, and fight the party to a standstill.  Rivers governor is not one of those governors that anyone can cajole. He is not one of those governors that will kowtow to illicit activities.”

Incidentally, this is not the first time the governor would issue a threat to his party.

Days to the Party’s Presidential Primary, Wike had vowed to deal with the party for planning to withdraw the hosting rights from his state, after giving it to them.

He apologised later for the threat. The primary finally held in Rivers State. Even though he supported a different aspirant, Atiku won decisively.

In the case of the Minority Leadership of the House,  this magazine gathered that denying Chinda the position was a high-wired political manoeuvre by a number of PDP stakeholders, including some PDP Governors who feel that the Rivers State Governor   has formed the habit of imposing his will on the party, and has vowed to begin to resist same. They allege that he is “bullying” the party because of the financial muscle of his state.

Said one of the governors  to the magazine: “Wike is bullying the party. He wants to run the party for us. He wants to impose his will all the time. He made Uche Secondus the Chairman. He took the Presidential primary to Rivers State. He threatened us over the failure of his favourite candidate to fly the Presidential flag. And he wanted to impose the Minority Leader on us. That is not right. Enough is enough”