News
Wike digs in against Atiku *Moves to fortify Damagum
Nyesom Wike: Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), seems to be leaving nothing to chances in his alleged determination to take total control of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the former Nigerian ruling party, now the main opposition.
The PUNCH is reporting that part of the plan being initiated by the former Governor of Rivers State is to fortify Umar Damagum, who has remained the Acting National Chairman of the party since the forceful exit of Iyiochia Ayu, former National Chairman, who supervised the party’s participation in the 2023 general elections.
Ayu, former Senate President and former Minister in the government of former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, was ousted from his position shortly after the election as a result of pressures from the Wike camp, which moved against him from the moment the former governor failed to secure the presidential ticket of the party at its National Convention in 2022.
Aside ensuring that Damagun consolidated his hold on the leadership of the party, the report, said the FCT Minister would move in the coming days against supporters of Atiku Abubakar, former Vice President and the PDP presidential candidate, who defeated Wike to the second position to pick the party’s ticket and with whom there has been no loves-lost.
The report, which listed Seyi Makinde, Ahmadu Fintiri, Caleb Mutfwang and Agbu Kefas, governors of Oyo, Adamawa, Plateau and (Taraba), on the sided of Wike in supporting Damagum’s retention, mentioned Bala Mohammed, Governor of Bauchi State and Chairman of the PDP Governors Forum (PDP-PGF) as leading Sim Fubara, Wike’s successor in Rivers and Ademola Adeleke, his Osun State counterpart to oppose the move.
All efforts to remove Damagun, including pushing the arguments that the North Central through which Ayu emerged, had not completed its term, in addition to bring reconciliation within the party, have remained futile.
Since the 98th edition of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party, where the first official attempt was scuttled by the Wike camp, other attempts to hold NEC meetings had failed by suffering from one postponement to the other.
From the August 15, date, it was shifted to October 24, 2024, then rescheduled for November 28, 2024, before it was suspended indefinitely, with a fresh proposal by the PDP-PGF that the NEC meeting should now be convened for latest February, 2025.
Amid all the intrigues, including the setting up a committee for reconciliation and another to look into cases of anti-party activities and punishment of erring members, set up by the Board of Trustees (BOT), the Federal High Court, Abuja also barred the PDP from taking actions to either remove Damagun or interfere with his job.
Even the attempt by the BOT headed by Adolphus Wabara, former Senate President, which had traversed the country to troubleshoot the crises, had witnessed its own hiccup including the refusal of Bode George, former PDP Deputy National Chairman (South), refusing the disciplinary committee membership on the ground of its headship by Tom Ikimi, was an insult given that the former Minister of Foreign Affairs was his junior in the PDP.
The first indication that the Wike camp meant business came with the sudden expulsion of Ikenga Ugochinyere, member representative for Ideato North/Ideato South Federal Constituency of Imo State, in the House of Representatives and a sworn political enemy of the FCT Minister, who had spared no hard words to attack him.
Ugochinyere, who accused Wike of sponsoring the crises in his home Rivers where an onslaught is threatening Fubara’s job, with 27 members of the state House of Assembly serving him an impeachment notice last year, as well as having a hand in the PDP crisis at Wadata Plaza, was sacked by the PDP executive at his local Umuopia/Umukegwu Ward chapter in Imo State on Saturday.
“There’s a deliberate plan to move against party members and even members of the public who oppose their interests. The Wike camp plans to prevent any opposition from having a voice or influence by February, the paper quoted an insider at the party as saying, adding that even some NWC members had stopped attending meetings regularly due to growing disunity within the party.
A pushback however came from the opposing camp almost immediately with Debo Ologunagba, the PDP spokesman countering, the lawmaker’s expulsion as a non-event, on the ground that party wards were not invested with powers to expel members of the National Assembly.
Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, Governor of Oyo State, on Thursday, finally threw his hats into the ring by declaring his intention to run for president in 2027, with a message – history beckons.
The governor, whose ambition has been a matter of speculations for months now and who had teamed up with forces angling to force President Bola Tinubu, out of power, told a teeming crowd in Ibadan on Thursday that time had come to reset Nigeria.
At a mega-rally to announce the alliance between the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), and the Allied Peoples’ Movement, (APM), Makinde, expressed worry over the dwindling fortunes of Nigerians, vowing to engage Nigerians to end the drift.
Hear him: “Without a multi-party system, there is no democracy. Where is our multi-party? Where do we go from here? We have been pushed to the wall.
“They calculated and self-opposition cannot unite but I am here to say that the opposition is the everyday Nigerian. This is the time for all us to ensure Nigeria works for us. This is the time to confront it fears. It is time to engage as citizens and not spectators.
“For the opposition political parties, this is the time to unite and work in unity and give our nation the much reset it needs. The time to reset Nigeria is now. Ibadan is the city of warriors. The first grand alliance is formed. The PDP and APM is formed. This handshake will allow us to field candidates from presidency to state Assembly. And so, I declare my candidacy for office of the president of Nigeria.”
Eyo Ekpe, a professor of cardiothoracic surgery at the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital (UUTH), on Wednesday, gave a detailed account on how operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) manhandled him on Monday.
He told reporters that he was at sea on why he should fall victim to the assault against his person and eventually arrested given that was not right person directly involved in the information the agency sought.
Some operatives of the EFCC who invaded the hospital, had whisked Ekpe away after firing teargas to scare away the workers, patients and visitors to the hospital, following what appeared like a fracas the ensued over what it claimed was a routine duty in the facility.
Ekpe, Deputy Chairman of the hospital’s Medical Advisory Committee (MAC), described how an operative had first entered his office to make inquiries on why the hospital was yet to give a response to an EFCC inquiry over a medical report linked to a suspect facing trial.
He detailed how he briefed the operative that the said response was being prepared and even went ahead to show him the draft of a letter in that regard, which needed to go through the gamut of official endorsement before being released.
Hear him: “The head of that internal medicine department looked at the report and also discovered that the name of the doctor that signed the report is not a member of staff of that department.
“I had prepared prepared a response to the EFCC on Monday, May 11, 2026, based on the findings. When the EFCC operative visited my office the next morning to collect the document, I told him that the response was ready in draft. I even showed him the draft, but told him that the document still needed approval from the Chief Medical Director (CMD) of the hospital before it could be officially signed and released.
“He pretended to have accepted that. He left, but later later returned with another armed operative and informed me that I was under arrest. I asked him why. I was not the one that issued the medical report. My name is not on the medical report. The report was not issued from my unit.
“But he said I would get the answer when I get to their office. I then asked him to at least wait for my staff member who I sent on an errand before joining them. But they refused.
“They started pushing me. They dragged me out of the office. Then I began to cry while they were dragging me. They had warned me not to speak. They had taken my phone. My cry as they were dragging me, attracted the workers to the scene, who enquired what was going on, but because they ordered me not to speak, I couldn’t say anything. They had their guns.
The members of staff of the hospital initially blocked them from taking me away. They then made a call. After that I saw many masked and armed men came violently, broke the protector, threatening the people that were around and people ran away.
“They picked some staff that were still by me. they dragged me and other staff, five of us into their van downstairs. By that time they discovered that the gate of the hospital were locked. So, they drove towards the gate and packed and the commotion continued. We were inside the van.
“I was so emotionally and psychologically traumatised that I couldn’t even look out of the vehicle to see what was happening outside. But I know that teargas and live bullets were shot. That’s all I can say for now.”
Joyce Abdulmalik, of the Federal High Court, Abuja, heard on Wednesday, how Zenith Bank raised alarm over the huge transaction in one of its branches by Abubakar Malami, former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice (AGF-MoJ).
The bank said it immediately filed a Suspicious Transaction Report (STR) in respect to the transactions, during its appearance in the ongoing trial of Malami, his wife, and son over allegation of massive looting of funds belonging to the Federal Government during his tenure.
Mashelia Bata, a compliance officer with the bank, who appeared as witness in the case, where Malami, et al, are facing a 16-count charge bordering on alleged money laundering to the tune of N8.7 billion, to which they pleaded not guilty, gave the testimony while being questioned on the bank’s roles in the matter.
Details of the testimony conveyed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), stated how the compliance officer who was cross-examined by Adebayo Adedeji, lawyer to the defendants admitted that the deposits in the account statements complied with the guidelines of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Arguments had stretched when Adedeji, opposed Jibrin Okutepa (SAN), lawyer to the EFCC, who had asked the witness to explain the meaning of a suspicious transaction report, stressing that there was no ambiguity in the term.
However, Okutepa, in response, maintained that section 215(3) of the Evidence Act did not preclude him from re-examining the witness while urging the court to allow the question for proper explanation.
After Abdulmalik, agreed and overruled Adedeji, the witness told the court that banks were required to alert the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) about fund deposits coming in a repetitive pattern, adding: “Any deposition of funds seen in a pattern or repetitive, you must escalate it to the NFIU.”
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