Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has accused Kwara State Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq of creating the political crisis in the state and attempting to blame him for the fallout.
Wike said AbdulRazaq pushed three senators and several members of the House of Representatives out of the All Progressives Congress (APC), only to accuse him of sponsoring them after some joined the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
“He has been the one championing this campaign against me everywhere. I mean the Kwara State Governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, and I have confronted him about it,” Wike said.
According to him, the governor created a crisis by attempting to remove several prominent politicians from the APC political structure.
“You removed three senators; you removed members of the House of Representatives. You must be a super governor to survive that,” he said.
Wike warned that deliberately sidelining influential politicians could have serious political consequences.
“Strategically, if you try to remove all these people, you have a crisis in your hands, and you have to be very, very careful,” he said.
The dispute has intensified following the defection of Kwara Central Senator Saliu Mustapha from the APC to the PDP, where he subsequently emerged as the party’s senatorial candidate.
Mustapha’s defection, alongside the exit of other prominent APC figures, has altered the political calculations in Kwara ahead of the 2027 elections.
Wike questioned what AbdulRazaq expected the displaced politicians to do after being pushed out of the APC.
“These senators you removed, you have no place for them. Therefore, did you prefer them to go to ADC or to go to NDC, which is opposing Mr President fervently?” he asked.
He said AbdulRazaq should instead appreciate that some of the politicians moved to a faction of the PDP that supports President Bola Tinubu.
Rather than doing so, Wike alleged, the governor had resorted to portraying him as the mastermind of opposition against his administration.
“The Governor of Kwara State now takes this propaganda to their own level, saying that Wike is now sponsoring a candidate in Kwara because I am supporting Saraki,” he said.
Wike dismissed the allegation, stressing that his support for Tinubu did not prevent the PDP from fielding candidates against the APC in elections.
“Did I have any agreement that now that we are supporting Mr President, PDP will not have any candidate anywhere?” he asked.