The National Coordinator of the South-South Leadership Forum, Chief Anabs Sara-Igbe, has revealed what he termed the real reasons the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, is after his successor as Rivers State Governor, Sim Fubara.
The Niger Delta leader made this known in an interview he granted Channels Television on Saturday.
Sara-Igbe equally revealed that before the crisis escalated to this point, Fubara had offered to resign.
He said the intervention of some Peoples Democratic Party leaders made the governor rescind his decision.
The former spokesperson for the Pan-Niger Delta Forum and ex-Security Adviser to former Governor Peter Odili, also of Rivers State, told Channels Television: “What is the problem?
“Wike has come to tell the world that he was fighting Sim because Sim wanted to take his structure.
“What is the structure six months after elections?
“We are not close to elections.
“So what has structure got to do?
“Let me tell you about the structure: Before Wike left government, the state was making over N10 billion Internally Generated Revenue (monthly).
“When he left, the IGR came down to N6 billion.
“And the governor, a former Accountant General of the state, asked questions.
“And in the process, he engaged somebody to look at the books.
“And the Commissioner of Finance reported to Wike and the former governor got angry.
“That is the structure.
“Secondly, the money coming from the Federation Account, Wike tied the money to one project or the other.
“So, when the money comes, it goes to the banks and they collect theirs from it and pay the contractors.
“Of course, we didn’t even know the cost of the contracts.
“So when this governor felt: ‘How will I run a government when I don’t have the resources,’ the Minister became hostile to the governor and the governor said: ‘Okay, let me resign if that is the case.’
“The PDP elders prevailed on him not to resign, thinking it would be messy.
“As soon as that ended, I came on air and advised Nyesom Wike to leave this man alone to govern, allow him, even if he’s your son.
“I even went as far as giving him references like the Sarakis.
“Dr. Olusola Saraki brought the son, Bukola, to that seat, but when their ideologies did not agree, the son told him to go and rest.
“You cannot make somebody a governor, a very important seat in Nigeria – that was the seat Odili sat and he almost became the president, that was the seat (former Governor Rotimi) Amaechi sat and he connived with others to remove a sitting president, that is the seat Wike himself sat and became a superman – and you are asking somebody who is on that seat to be subservient.
“But the governor is still loyal.”
Sara-Igbe said Wike was aware that 27 members of the Rivers State House of Assembly were going to dump the PDP for the All Progressives Congress and also knew the consequences.
He said: “He (Wike) is a lawyer.
“He ought to know that such a move would cost the Assembly members their seats.”
On the position of the lawmakers that their defection was not engineered by Wike, Sara-Igbe said: “I am a father to some of them.
“I know their personal grievances, but they cannot do what they did without the support of their godfather.
“They believe Wike and Sim were having problems and because of that they leveraged that to get at him (Sim).
“Even before the impeachment saga, some were threatening the governor that if he did rubbish, they would get him removed from office.
“But the governor is a calm person.
Also Read:
- I now know why Gov. Uba has been praising Tinubu — El-Rufai
- Surviving abroad marriage: My observations, by Tunde Asaju
- Why I dumped PDP – Nwoko; We won’t miss him — Commissioner
- Anambra: Three siblings killed, bodies dumped in deep freezer
- Telecom Tariff Hike: NLC suspends planned nationwide protest
“And I believe strongly that this is one man who loves Wike so much and has sacrificed so much for him before he became governor and even after.
“Today, the governor is not disposed to making trouble with the minister.
“He still sees it as a father and son relationship, but the minister, because of greed, is someone who wants to get everything, trying to take over the two parties: APC and PDP.
“When somebody is in control and wants power at all cost, it’s not the best.
“And that is what is leading to some of his problems.”
Follow The Eagle Online Channel on WhatsApp
