•Wike, Fayose and Anyanwu
The chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), South-South, Emmanuel Ogidi, insists that the suspension of FCT Minister Nyesom Wike, ex-governor of Ekiti State, Ayo Fayose, ex-party secretary Samuel Anyanwu and others, stands.
Ogidi said this today during his appearance on Channels Television, dismissing the claims to the contrary as “noise”.
“Nigerians know the truth. They (Wike, Fayose, Anyanwu, others) are just making noise. They’ve been expelled,” the PDP chieftain said on the show.
During its national convention in November, the PDP expelled Wike, Fayose, Samuel Anyanwu, and eight others over what the party described as “anti-party” activities.
The convention, held in Ibadan, Oyo State, cited what it described as activities inconsistent with the party’s collective interest as reasons for the move. It later issued a certificate of expulsion to the affected persons.
However, the group in the PDP loyal to Wike expelled Governor Seyi Makinde and others, who backed the expulsion.
‘I’m still in the PDP’
Weeks after the expulsion, Wike insisted he is still a member of the main opposition PDP.
“I’m still in the PDP. So those who have remained, we’ll continue to work together.
“And I have said to the party, ‘Put your house in order. Because at the end of the day, if you don’t put your house in order, it’s the party that will lose’,” Wike said while reacting to the defection of some PDP lawmakers in the Rivers Assembly, to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
“And we still ask the party to work together to see how the remaining members will be a relevant opposition. But they chose not to.”
The FCT minister’s grouse with the PDP began in 2022 when Wike asked the party to zone its presidential ticket to southern Nigeria.
When ex-President Atiku Abubakar, from the North-East, won the race to fly the PDP flag in the 2023 election, the former Rivers State governor supported the All Progressives Congress (APC) in that poll.
