Former Rivers State Governor and current Federal Capital Territory Minister, Nyesom Wike, has denied that his successor, Governor Siminalayi Fubara, knelt to plead with him to resolve their political rift.
Fubara on Monday said he begged Wike to let go of Rivers State and allow peace to reign in the oil-rich state.
The political landscape in Rivers State has taken a tense turn, with a rift emerging between Wike and Fubara over control of the state’s political structure.
This power struggle began after Fubara took office, with Wike reportedly seeking to maintain his influence over the state’s governance, while Fubara aims to establish his own authority.
President Bola Tinubu intervened and helped to broker a peace deal between the two politicians but it failed to yield a positive result.
“There is nothing I have not done on this earth for peace to reign. I can tell you the number of times I have knelt to beg that ‘let’s allow this issue to go.’ I have done everything,” Fubara said on Monday.
When asked what his message to Wike would be if they met, Fubara said, “I’ll tell him (Wike) that it has gotten to a point where he needs to let go. We need peace in this state.
“You don’t necessarily need to win all the fights; at times, you just let go for the sake of the good people of Rivers State and the love that you have always professed for the state. We need to secure the state.
“Fubara will leave tomorrow. Who knows who is going to come? It might be through him or another person but we need to secure the state.”
Reacting to Fubara’s comments when he appeared on Channels TV Politics Today on Tuesday evening, monitored by SaharaReporters, Wike said Governor Fubara lied about kneeling before him.
Wike said: “Look, first of all, I deny that fact (that Governor Fubara knelt before me). Never! Why should he kneel down? What offence did he commit? Did he commit an offence to kneel down? If he knelt down, what was he kneeling down for? It is not correct.
“The point I’m making by the intervention of Mr President (Tinubu), I said Mr President cannot come and call you, as the father of the nation, that this should be down, this should be down, and we said ‘Okay, we are going to comply,’ and we did not comply.
“The problem is that he plotted a coup to remove the Speaker of the State House of Assembly and the thing boomeranged against him. Has he ever told you that I said, ‘Pay me this one naira,’ and that is why I’m fighting him?”
