Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike has maintained control over the APC and PDP state chapters, isolating former Minister of Transportation Rotimi Amaechi.
Wike, a PDP member, has straddled the APC and PDP, perplexing his opponents like Amaechi, now an APC member.
His complex political game caused Magnus Abe, the Social Democratic Party (SDP) governorship candidate in the March 18 governorship elections in the state, to withdraw his case to the elections tribunal disputing the results.
Rivers’ strongman used high-octane politics before the general elections to poison the state’s political atmosphere, prompting the tribunal to move from Port Harcourt to Abuja.
Wike has met with Bola Tinubu, the president-elect, while Amaechi looks to be in political limbo after failing to endorse the APC presidential candidate during the February 25 poll.
Wike and his Oyo State counterpart, Seyi Makinde, visited Tinubu a few days ago to beg support for the new administration, promising that Nigeria will be better under Tinubu.
The Presidential Inauguration Council spokesperson, Bayo Onanuga, declined to confirm rumours that the president-elect will appoint him as Minister of Interior.
Wike’s control over the parties has delayed Amaechi’s predicted defection to the PDP till he becomes an APC minister.
Wike has not disputed that he will switch to the APC with the governor-elect and the PDP state apparatus due to his opposition to the PDP leadership crisis.
Abe claimed he withdrew the lawsuit from the tribunal based on an Abuja judgement, which looks like a Tinubu concession to Wike.
Abe, who switched from the APC before the 2023 election to get the SDP gubernatorial ticket, supported Tinubu and rallied people for his presidential candidature.
Abe explained, “Having taken a very clear analysis of the circumstances and what is occurring in the state,” he conferred with individuals in the state and Abuja to “withdraw my plea at the election petition tribunal.”
“In the interest, first of those who have suffered and laboured so much in this politics in support of our course, more importantly in the interest of our state, so that we begin to reduce the bickering and confusion in the state in order to give us all an opportunity to be able to move forward with our lives,” he said.
“I take this decision, very conscious of the aches, trauma, and confusion it will bring to a lot of you who wanted that chance to submit your sufferings before the public in a court of law so the court may judge what happened to us here in the state (Rivers), good or bad.
That would have been our joy, and we were committed and determined to bring that to the past, but politics is not a single person’s sport, and it’s a team sport; therefore, you make decisions as we did for the team’s sake, not for an individual.
“I know a lot of you will be very wounded or angered by my choice, but I say to you the interest of all of us surpasses the interests of anybody of us.”