Umar Sani, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has defended the party’s recent expulsion of Minister Nyesom Wike, former Ekiti State Governor Ayo Fayose, and nine others, describing the action as “better late than never.”
Speaking on the timing of the expulsions during an interview with ARISE NEWS on Monday, Sani said, “On the issue of Nyesom Wike and that the actions we took were coming a little bit too late, I want to say that the actions we took, it is better late than never. And even when we were saying we were going to resolve this thing as a family, it became very clear that there was no way we could resolve it as a family.”
The PDP had previously set up the Ambassador Hassan Adamu Committee for Reconciliation, with Mike Oghiadomhe as Secretary, to mediate between the parties involved. Sani noted that reconciliation efforts faltered when Wike insisted on a condition that the PDP must agree not to field a presidential candidate in 2027.
“The BOT, in their last resolve to settle the matter, set up the Ambassador Hassan Adamu Committee for Reconciliation, which had Mike Oghiadomhe as the Secretary, to try to broker some peace and reconciliation within the two camps, because I don’t want to call them a faction. A faction has been described by the Electoral Act that a court must recognise one of the two as a faction before you can call it a faction. So, it is just an internal dispute within us. I think Wike said so in his interview on national television, where he said it is a dispute among family members. Now, having said all this, the committee approached Wike. He said that one of his conditions is that we must agree that we are not going to field a presidential candidate in 2027. That is the only condition that he will have, or that this is a fight to finish. This is what he said. So, we cannot wait for a fight to finish. We have to end the fight.”
Melissa Enoch
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