Ex Rivers Chief of Staff, Woke hits out at Wike’s critics, says plot to pitch FCT Minister against Tinubu has failed

Chief Chukwuemeka Woke, a former Chief of Staff to the ex-Rivers State Governor and now Minister of Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Nyesom Wike has hit out at those criticising his boss, over his (Wike) recent statements on the political situation in the state.

The FCT Minister had come under heavy criticism from some stakeholders of the state over his comments on the political upheavals in the state few weeks ago.

Reacting to the attacks on Wike, Woke stated that instead of those, whom he described as failed politicians in the state to address the salient issues raised by the Minister about their characters, they rather are diverting attention.

He said Wike’s critics have failed in their antics of blackmail and fruitless ploy to pitch him against the President, stressing that their ill-fated attempt to diminish the image of the Minister has been noticed and will continue to fail.

Woke who spoke at a critical stakeholder meeting of Emohua Local Government Area of the state held at the council Secretariat on Wednesday, said their desperate plot to pass through the back doors into the Tinubu’s administration had already failed, adding that the president is already aware of them and their antics.

He said: “Our leader, Nyesom Wike, had in a recent media chat where he informed Nigerians on the activities of FCT administration and of course arising from a question asked by one of the panelists he talked about politics in Rivers State.

“Rather than addressing those issues, what we are seeing is name calling, people trying to malign the person of the FCT Minister and trying to blackmail him to see whether they can cause any disagreement between him and the president, of course they will not succeed.”

Speaking further, Woke revealed that the said politicians in their usual scheming had in December 2021 approached the then governor of the state, Wike nudging him to run for the office of the President but reneged.

He, however urged critics to focus on issues rather than resort to name calling and playing cheap politics.

He added: “We came in 2023, the same group of people, on the 13th of December 2021 went and woke up our leader from sleep by 1 am. Twenty-seven of them signed and asked him to come and run for President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria when our leader was already sleeping.

“Our leader asked them if they would stand behind him and they said yes. When it was time for the Presidential primaries all of them ganged against him. Leave name calling, when time for name calling comes we will go into that.”

Recall that the FCT Minister during a media chat in Abuja a few weeks ago had described those calling on the President to gauge him, as fair weather politician whose characters gravitate to those with deep pockets.

The Minister said he had defeated and continued defeating them even if they gathered under a failed political platform to destabilise and milk the system.