By our reporter
The feud between Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, and his estranged political godson and governor of Rivers State, Sim Fubara, entered a new high on Saturday, March 15, with the Minister openly mocking the governor in public.
Addressing a gathering of Kalabari people at a reception for him on Saturday in the state, Wike likened his battle with the governor to a football match, saying he (Wike) had scored two goals to Fubara’s none so far.
The immediate past governor of Rivers State was apparently referring to the recent Supreme Court verdict which ordered Fubara to represent the state’s 2025 budget to the Martins Amaewhule-led 27 members of the State House of Assembly -a faction loyal to the Minister and which had been politically ostracized by the governor due to this factor. The apex court had ordered the 27 to resume duties at the Assembly.
Aside that, the Supreme Court requested Fubara to re-conduct the state’s Local Government polls.
Speaking on the occasion in Kalabari, Wike claimed that Fubara was losing the battle because he surrounded himself with persons whom he (Wike) had in the past rejected for the state’s governorship as, according to him, they did not mean well for the oil-rich Niger Delta state.
Wike said: “You (Fubara) surrounded yourself with people who wanted to be governor, whom I said ‘no, these people don’t mean well for Rivers State.’ They are the ones surrounding you, giving you advice. Do you think you will succeed?”
Contending that from such persons proceeds “bad advice”, the Minister ridiculed the governor, saying it was no wonder that his political confrontations with Fubara had yielded a score of two for Wike and zero for the governor.
“They will give bad advice, and look at what bad advice is doing to you: you are already down 2-0, and there’s more to come,” Wike mocked.
The Minister had also earlier alleged that the governor was not an Ijaw man.
In the wake of the Supreme Court judgment, Gov. Fubara moved to comply with details of the verdict by visiting the Assembly to re-present the 2025 budget proposals to the Amaewhule-led lawmakers, only to get to the building and find out that the place was locked while the lawmakers,on Friday, declared an indefinite recess.
