FORMER Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, has expressed surprise at the Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammed’s verbal attacks on the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike.
According to Dogara, Mohammed’s attack on Wike is surprising because Wike financed Mohammed’s campaign to become governor.
In a long statement on Tuesday, Dogara said he and others supporting Mohammed to become governor were shocked that despite being a former minister he had no money to fund his governorship bid.
Dogara said apart from Wike taking control of the PDP primary to ensure Mohammed’s emergence as the PDP flag-bearer, he went on to provide Mohammed with money and logistics, which enabled him to win the election and become a governor.
In the last couple of weeks, Wike and Mohammed have been locked in a media war, with Mohammed describing Wike as a transactional politician who is propelled by personal gains.
Mohammed, who is the Chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum, also described Wike as a serial betrayer and a threat to the PDP, urging him to resign from the PDP and join the ruling All Progressives Congress, which appointed him the FCT minister.
However, wading in on Tuesday in his statement titled, “Let the truth be told,” Dogara said that given how Wike helped Mohammed in the past, the Bauchi governor’s attack on Wike smacked of ingratitude and betrayal.
Dogara wrote, “As someone who knows so much because I was the provocateur of the events between the two that I will speak to, I consider my silence not just cowardice but complicity. Therefore, I am not afraid to stand alone or risk conflict. I should not be misunderstood to be defending Wike but simply stating the raw truth that I know, and I don’t give a damn if the truth makes Wike look good. I have learnt to tell the truth as I enjoy my freedom from being a slave to human opinion.
“For starters, need I remind Governor Bala Mohammed that in the 2018 PDP gubernatorial primaries when we were not too sure he would win because his then major opponent, Senator Abdul Ningi, was the one who constituted the state party structure and had a bosom friend as party chairman, it was Wike we turned to for help.
“I had called Wike to plead with him to help us in Bauchi without necessarily disclosing to him that it was Bala Mohammed that we wanted to be delivered. His response to me, was that ‘Are you sure you are in control of the process 100 per cent?’ I said, I wasn’t too sure and he said to me, ‘Leave it to me, I will help you sort it out.’
“To do it, Wike, first of all, made his bosom friend and close ally, Chief Dan Orbih, the chairman of the panel for the primaries and said I should discuss whatever I wanted with Chief Dan. We got talking, and on the eve of the primaries, Chief Dan was in Benin City, and we needed to get him to Bauchi for the assignment.
“It was Wike that I turned to again, and his response to me was, ‘My brother, I have told you not to bother about this. Tell Chief Dan to come to meet me in Port Harcourt’. I did just that, and amazingly, Wike provided the private jet that flew Chief Dan to Bauchi and out of Bauchi for the assignment. I can say without fear of any contradiction that Wike bore all expenses for the exercise. It’s, therefore, shocking that this so-called transactional character called Wike did not place any condition whatsoever for his support.”
The former Speaker said Wike did not stop there, stressing that the former Rivers State governor assisted Mohammed during the main election as the latter had no money of his own to fund his campaign.
“After the emergence of Bala Mohammed as the party flag-bearer and having promised to sponsor all the party candidates if he gets the ticket, we were rudely awoken to the reality that Bala Mohammed had no money for his campaigns, let alone for other candidates of the party.