By Bayo Wahab

Nyesom Wike, the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), says the suspended Governor Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers State is making reconciliatory moves to settle their rift.

The former Governor of Rivers said Fubara had visited him, alongside two other governors.

The FCT Minister said this on Monday following reports that Fubara, suspended earlier in the year, visited him.

“Yes, he visited,” Wike confirmed the reports during a media parley with select journalists in Abuja.

“Yes, he came with two governors and one elder person. Unfortunately, the two governors are APC governors. So, I will not pursue him. He said he wants peace. That’s fine. I also want peace,” he said.

The rift between Wike and Fubara started shortly after latter assumed office as Governor of Rivers State.

The crisis reached a crescendo in March when President Bola Tinubu suspended Fubara, the deputy governor, Ngozi Odu and the Rivers Assembly.

Following their suspension, the President appointed a state administrator whom he saddled with the responsibility of running Rivers affairs for six months.

Meanwhile, Fubara has been suing for peace but Wike said the suspended governor needs to take more reconciliatory steps rather than allegedly organising protests against the President’s declaration of a state of emergency rule in Rivers State.

“I told him, ‘Look, I don’t think you have the capacity to really make this peace.’ That’s why when I read what I read yesterday, I felt so bad. Why? If you are making peace, your people are demonstrating every day; if you are making peace, your people are busy on television insulting people. How do you feel in that case?”

“You must take steps. Have you met the assembly people? There are leaders you should meet. It is not to say, ‘I want peace.’ You must show it by conduct and action,” Wike said. 

According to Wike, Fubara was deceived by some governors before the crisis escalated.

“Governors came pushing him, where are they now? I think the governors are enjoying their own,” the former governor stated.

Vanguard News