Former Governor of Jigawa State, Alhaji Sule Lamido, has called for the expulsion of the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Chief Nyesom Wike, from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Lamido made the remark during a telephone interview in Abuja on Tuesday.
He stated that although he remains a committed member of the PDP a party he helped to establish he has taken the difficult but necessary decision to withdraw from all leadership meetings as long as Wike and former Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, remain members of the party’s Board of Trustees (BoT).
The former governor also questioned the rationale behind the appointment of Senator Samuel Anyanwu as National Secretary of the PDP, despite being rejected by his geopolitical zone, the party’s governors, and the BoT.
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Commenting on Wike’s alleged involvement in the recent sealing of the PDP National Secretariat, Lamido remarked, “What more can be said? This is simply the theatre of Nigerian politics. Here is someone the PDP raised to national prominence, who now turns against the very party that made him. Wike, in all honesty, is a disaster. His actions are un-African and un-Nigerian.”
He continued: “I cannot comprehend how someone, driven by personal ambition, can resort to such vindictiveness and destruction. Our party once stood on a culture of collective interest of altruism but that seems to have vanished.”
“To seal the PDP secretariat the very institution that nurtured and promoted you no matter your grievances, is akin to setting fire to your own house.
“He boasts about financing the party. But is it wrong for a son to care for his own mother? Does that entitle him to dictate to her simply because he provided clothing? Wike’s reasoning is deeply flawed. He lacks the values and traditions that shaped our political culture.”
Lamido expressed gratitude to President Bola Tinubu for intervening and ordering the reopening of the PDP office, stating: “Ironically, the very man Wike is trying to please by tearing down his political home is the one telling him, ‘You cannot do this.’ Tinubu has exposed Wike’s unreliability and lack of political pedigree and may likely abandon him soon.”
He recalled his tenure as National Secretary of the defunct Social Democratic Party (SDP), during which the party sanctioned even its most powerful members to uphold discipline.
“In our time,” he said, “the party was supreme. It commanded respect across the country North, South, East, and West. No matter how powerful, anyone who breached party lines faced sanctions. Today, people like Wike, who profess loyalty to the PDP while actively undermining it, are still tolerated. The National Working Committee (NWC) ought to have expelled him by now.”
Lamido also criticised the continued presence of Samuel Ortom on the BoT, despite his open support for Peter Obi in the 2023 presidential election.
“This is precisely why I’ve said I will not attend any PDP meeting while Wike remains in the party and people like Ortom remain on the BoT. I am still a PDP member, but I will not take part in party functions or meetings while these individuals retain leadership roles.
“How can I sit in the same room with Ortom to deliberate on the future of the PDP? Or with Anyanwu, who has been rejected in his own zone but is now being imposed by another? These are impostors,” he stated.
