2027: I never vowed to ‘hold down’ PDP for Tinubu, Wike denies Makinde’s claims

The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has denied claims that he promised President Bola Tinubu that he would deliver the Peoples Democratic Party ahead of the 2027 presidential election.

Wike clarified this during a media chat at his office in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, on Monday.

His clarification comes amid tensions within the PDP, which escalated last week when Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, accused Wike of promising Tinubu that he would hold the opposition party down for him.

Makinde had said the issues behind his disagreement with Wike began after the minister told Tinubu during a meeting that he would “hold PDP” for the president ahead of the 2027 election.

Makinde stated, “I was in a meeting with the president and Wike… and I’m saying this, you know, in an open chat. The president’s chief of staff was also in that meeting and a few others… and Wike said to the president that, well, Sir, I will hold PDP for you, you know, in 2027.

“I was in shock. So we got up, we got to the veranda, and I said, ‘Wike, did we agree to this?’ I told him from that day that I would never be a part of this.

“Wike can support him, and that is within his right, but it is equally my right to decide who I will support and what role I will play in 2027.”

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Makinde said he later raised the issue with a mutual friend, hoping Wike would reconsider his stance.

He said, “I confided in a mutual friend of ours after that meeting. And I kept thinking, okay, the president did not ask him to ‘do this for him’. He was the one who volunteered to do that.

“When I was telling our mutual friend, I said, look, maybe he was talking about an errand that the president never sent him. So, let’s engage him. Let’s see if he will back off. But he never did.”

Reacting during an end-of-the-year media chat on Monday, Wike described Makinde’s allegation as a blatant lie and suggested that the Oyo State governor was “frustrated” and lacked the courage to openly declare his own presidential ambitions.

“Seyi Makinde has never called me Wike. That is the first time I have heard him calling me Wike. It’s unfortunate.

“First of all, you ask yourself, what was that meeting? What was the purpose of that meeting? That would have led me to say, “Mr President, I will hold PDP down for you.”

The former Rivers State governor queried why, if the allegation were true, Makinde did not raise the issue earlier after the alleged meeting with the president.

“Why did Seyi Makinde not come up all this while to tell the party, see what Wike is doing? I was in a meeting. I saw what Wike said. It’s not correct,” he said.

Setting the record straight, Wike said: “There was no such meeting. Rather, my humble self, the former governor of Benue State, Samuel Ortom, the former governor of Abia State, Okezie Ikpeazu, the former governor of Enugu State, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, and Seyi Makinde, went to see the president.

“We went to see the president after elections were over, to discuss certain things. While we were there, the Chief of Staff — you should know that the Chief of Staff is always around the president.

“I was the one who said, look, Chief of Staff, come and sit down, so we can remind the president of what we have discussed.

“There was nothing like a meeting we booked to go and see Mr President.

“So, it is completely out of place for anybody to say that in that meeting I told Mr President that I would hold PDP down for him.”

Describing the claim as “very, totally unfair,” Wike said the Oyo State governor was frustrated.

“I have told everybody, frustration — if you can see it, if you watch Seyi Makinde, you can see frustration. And this young man, we have advised severely.

“Politics is not like being a contractor with Shell. Politics is not like being a contractor. It has different rules.

“When did Seyi Makinde come into politics? There is nothing wrong with having ambition, but the ambition must be pursued according to the rules.”

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