Lere Olayinka, Senior Special Assistant on Public Communications and Social Media to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has reaffirmed that his principal remains a committed member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) despite ongoing tensions within the opposition party.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Wednesday, Olayinka dismissed claims that Wike is working to destabilise the PDP ahead of an alleged plan to defect to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). He insisted that the minister’s interventions within the PDP are aimed at restoring internal order and ensuring adherence to the party’s constitution.
“The Minister has continually maintained that he remains in the PDP,” Olayinka said. “Everything he has complained about, every position he has taken, which of them has the party not come back to accept?”
He cited several examples to back his claim, including the controversy surrounding the party’s National Chairman, Umar Damagum, and the position of National Secretary, Samuel Anyanwu. According to Olayinka, Wike’s earlier criticisms of party decisions were eventually validated.
“When Wike insisted that Damagum should remain the rightful chairman, people said he was acting against the party. Yet the same people later accepted that position,” he noted.
“The same thing happened with the case of the National Secretary. The Supreme Court gave a judgment that was ignored until the party came back to agree with Wike’s stance.”
Convention controversy, legal restraints
Olayinka also referenced Tuesday’s Abuja Federal High Court ruling, which restrained the PDP from proceeding with its planned national convention in Ibadan, Oyo State, scheduled for 15 November. He criticised the party’s zoning arrangements, arguing that its constitution only recognises a broad North-South zoning formula rather than the micro-zoning now being practised.
“You want to hold a national convention when positions have already been zoned to regions in violation of the constitution,” he said.
Internal discontent
The FCT minister’s aide further alleged that many PDP leaders remain unaware of key organisational details ahead of the convention.
“Most of those leaders don’t even know where their nomination forms are. The National Organising Secretary, who is supposed to manage the process, doesn’t know who the candidates are,” Olayinka claimed.
Dismissing accusations that Wike is the root cause of the PDP’s crisis, Olayinka cited the case of former Jigawa State governor Sule Lamido, who, despite paying for his nomination form to contest for national chairman, allegedly never received it.
“Did Wike cause that? Even if you have preferred candidates, democracy means allowing others to contest,” he said.
The remarks come amid deepening divisions within the PDP over leadership, zoning, and constitutional compliance, issues that continue to threaten the stability of Nigeria’s main opposition party.
