Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Nyesom Wike<\/p>\n
Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike<\/a>, has urged the Amanyanabo of Okochiri Kingdom in Okrika Local Government Area of Rivers State, King Ateke Tom<\/a>, to allow political actors to \u201cplay their game\u201d ahead of the 2027 elections.\n<\/p>\n Wike, who said political activities would soon gather momentum in the state, appealed to the monarch not to interfere in political engagements, stressing that no involvement was being sought from the traditional institution.\n<\/p>\n \u201cAllow us to play our politics. Don\u2019t put your hand in it. We are not asking you to be involved; just allow us to play our game,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n Ateke Tom is a respected figure with significant influence, particularly among youths, chiefs, and women in Okirika LGA.\n<\/p>\n The minister emphasised that his visit was purely to express gratitude, noting that it was his first time visiting a traditional ruler\u2019s palace for such purpose.<\/p>\n \u201cOkirika has supported me, and I felt it was necessary to come and say thank you,\u201d Wike said, adding that the monarch\u2019s leadership had brought sustained peace to Okrika.\n<\/p>\n \u201cYou hardly hear of crises here because of your leadership. Since you came, we have not heard of any crisis.\u201d He described himself as an Ijaw man by affinity, citing his long-standing relationship with the Ijaw and Okrika people.\n<\/p>\n He also thanked the community for standing with his political camp during the recent crisis, crediting President Bola Tinubu for ensuring the conduct of local government elections and correcting what he described as previous illegalities.\n<\/p>\n \u201cWe took a risk in 2023 to support President Tinubu, and today we are benefiting from that decision,\u201d Wike said. Speaking also, Chairman of the Rivers Ijaw Peoples Congress, George Sekibo, pledged the unwavering support of the Ijaw people for Wike, commending him for the appointments given to their kinsmen and thanking President Tinubu for his support.\n<\/p>\n Chairman of Okrika Local Government Area, Akuro Tobin, praised Wike\u2019s leadership and developmental strides, particularly the ongoing construction of the Eleme\u2013Onne section of the East\u2013West Road, which he said had boosted economic activities in the area.\n<\/p>\n Speaking on behalf of the women, Deputy Leader of the Rivers State House of Assembly and member representing Okrika Constituency, Linda Stewart, expressed the women\u2019s support for Wike and offered prayers for the minister and his political team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Nyesom Wike Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has urged…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":931,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[122,1205],"class_list":{"0":"post-930","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nigeria","8":"tag-nigeria","9":"tag-wike"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=930"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/930\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Addressing the Okrika people earlier at the council secretariat, Wike warned that any miscalculation in 2027 would amount to \u201cpolitical burial,\u201d insisting he was determined not to make such an error. <\/p>\n
Looking ahead to 2027, the minister said, his team would only support candidates with proven character, insisting that the mistakes of 2023 must not be repeated. He added that the slogan, \u2018On your mandate, we stand\u2019, would not translate into automatic tickets for anyone.<\/p>\n