Dave Umahi, Ebonyi State governor has accused his Rivers State counterpart, Nyesom Wike, of remote-controlling the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Mr Umahi made the allegation while responding to the recent assertion of Mr Wike that he left the opposition party to the ruling party because he (Umahi) was nursing a presidential ambition.
The Rivers State governor who said his Ebonyi counterpart is free to aspire for any office he so wishes, it shouldn’t lead to the blackmailing of the PDP accused of meting out injustice to the South-East geo-political zone.
In his response, Umahi warmed that further attacks from him and Wike who he described as his ‘friend’ will be dangerous. He also accused him of remote-controlling the opposition party.
“I refused to join issues with Wike because he is my friend. But Wike must know that he is a dictator. Wike must know that one person cannot be called a crowd. Wike must know that a lot of governors in PDP are not very happy with him. He remote controls the party,” the Ebonyi governor said on Arise Television yesterday.
“He (Wike) said that I made my brother the Vice Chairman. I fund the PDP South-east from A to Z. And he has forgotten that he singlehandedly made Secondus the (PDP) Chairman. He has forgotten that he wanted to impose one of his own as minority leader of the house.
“There is nothing that happens in PDP without his authorisation. He once said that PDP National Working Committee members are beggars and bribe takers. I have asked him that let’s not take on ourselves or else it will be very dangerous.
“So let’s us face the party, the party does not belong to him. And this is by no means personal and he is demonstrating the dictatorial tendencies in him by taking on me, a fellow governor. And that is very shameful.
“APC does more consultation. Anybody can contravene this that PDP working committee is being remote-controlled and that is the truth and it is very dangerous and all the governors know that.
“You (Wike) cannot stay in your state and you will be remote-controlling what happens in other states. Unless that changes you will see a lot of governors leaving the party,” Umahi warned adding that he will be a happy man if a president of South-east is elected in 2023 even if that person is not him.
Wike who in response said he cannot be threatened denied single-handedly installing Uche Secondus, the national chairman of the party.
“Umahi cannot threaten me, he knows me too well. When the case of Edo State came up I stood firm and said we cannot go this way, if we go this way we will destroy our party and are bound to lose elections,” Wike said yesterday on Arise TV.
“It, therefore, requires everybody to sit together to agree, and when all of us agreed, we saw the success and that affected us in Ondo state because we could not agree.
“If you saw the way Umahi spoke earlier, you’d know he’s a man that things aren’t good with him now.
“I’m not at Umahi’s level. He said I single-handedly chose Secondus as PDP chairman. How could I? Secondus is from my state. I asked everyone to support him and everyone agreed, including Umahi.
“Umahi has the right to move to the APC, it’s his constitutional right, but we cannot in all cases allow Umahi blackmail PDP that made him chairman of the party, deputy governor, and governor and then you now realize there is an injustice against the southeast.
“All of us in PDP know the romance of Governor Umahi with the APC. We had a meeting and he came out to say he had an agreement with the president that he’d give the president 35 to 40 percent as the case may be,” the Rivers governor added.
