The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has admitted collaborating with members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to defeat his own party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2024 Edo State governorship election, saying he has no regrets about his role.
Mr Wike said the alliance was deliberately formed to prevent former Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo from installing a successor, acknowledging that the collaboration between sections of the PDP and the APC helped the ruling party win the election.
“I was behind it, and I don’t have any regrets about it,” he said.
According to The Punch, the minister spoke on Monday at a stakeholders’ meeting of the Rainbow Coalition, a cross-party political platform mobilising support for President Bola Tinubu’s re-election in 2027.
The admission reinforces Mr Wike’s history of working across party lines to influence electoral outcomes, including his role in the 2023 presidential election, when he and four other aggrieved PDP governors refused to support their party’s candidate, Atiku Abubakar.
In September 2026, Mr Wike disclosed how the G-5 governors devised strategies to prevent Atiku from benefiting from the PDP’s traditional electoral strength in parts of the South-south, particularly Edo and Cross River states.
Speaking on TVC’s Journalists’ Hangout, he said the group considered the PDP’s strength in the region a potential advantage for Atiku and deliberately sought to redirect votes to the Labour Party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi, in some states.
“How did he win? When the G-5, we sat, we had our strategy. We said in Edo, PDP is stronger in the South-south. Our problem will be Atiku. Therefore, instead of Atiku to take it, let it go to the Labour Party. That was our strategy. Cross River, the same thing. That’s what we did,” he said.
Mr Wike also said Rivers State was deliberately treated differently because the group feared the political implications of Mr Obi winning the state.
“It was only Rivers that said, ‘No, we have a problem here in Rivers. Obi will not win here because if he wins, he sends a signal somewhere, people may not understand it.’ And we stopped…we stopped it,” he said.
The remarks offered a rare public account of the political calculations behind the G-5 governors’ opposition to Mr Atiku, despite their membership of the PDP.
The group comprised Mr Wike, then Rivers governor; Seyi Makinde of Oyo State; Samuel Ortom of Benue State; Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State; and Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State.
The governors had demanded the resignation of the PDP’s then national chairman, Iyorchia Ayu, arguing that the party’s presidential candidate and national chairman should not both come from the North after eight years of northern leadership under President Muhammadu Buhari.
Their dispute with the PDP leadership continued into the 2023 general election, when Mr Wike openly maintained that his priority was the emergence of a southern president rather than the victory of a particular candidate.
Mr Tinubu, the APC candidate, won the presidential election, while Atiku finished second and Mr Obi third nationally.
In Rivers, where Mr Wike was governor, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Mr Tinubu the winner with 231,591 votes, against Mr Obi’s 175,071 and Mr Atiku’s 88,468.
However, PREMIUM TIMES later reviewed results uploaded to INEC’s Results Viewing Portal and found substantial discrepancies in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area, Mr Wike’s political stronghold. The newspaper’s review indicated that Mr Obi had won the state based on the polling-unit results it examined, although missing, illegible and improperly uploaded results limited the scope of the independent tally.
In March 2023, Mr Wike denied directing Rivers residents to vote against Mr Obi, saying he had urged them to support national unity. He also criticised the PDP leadership for failing to resolve the crisis that preceded the election.
Edo governorship election
Mr Wike’s latest admission concerns the September 2024 Edo governorship election, which the APC’s Monday Okpebholo won with 291,667 votes.
The PDP candidate, Asue Ighodalo, polled 247,274 votes, while the Labour Party candidate, Olumide Akpata, received 22,763 votes, according to INEC’s announced results.
Mr Wike said his opposition to Mr Ighodalo was not based on the candidate’s qualifications. Rather, he said, he wanted to prevent Mr Obaseki from retaining political influence through his successor.
He recalled that Mr Ighodalo visited his residence several times to seek his support, but he declined to back him.
“He came to my house more than three times. I said, listen, you’re a good candidate. But for this election, I’m sorry,” Mr Wike said.
He said he told Mr Ighodalo that supporting his candidacy would amount to returning Mr Obaseki to power indirectly.
“This election is between us and the man who is bringing you, Governor Obaseki, an ingrate person, ungrateful person. So returning you is like bringing him back. So I’m sorry. You have to fail. And he failed,” he said.
Mr Wike said the result showed that political alliances across party lines were an established feature of Nigerian elections.
“So when people say that nothing like coalition, they tell lies. The truth of the matter is that it has been there depending on how it is worked out,” he said.
He specifically credited the collaboration between PDP loyalists and APC members with Mr Okpebholo’s victory, saying former APC national chairman Adams Oshiomhole could attest to the alliance.
2027: Realignment
Mr Wike’s latest comments follow political manoeuvring ahead of the 2027 general election and disagreements within the APC over the Rainbow Coalition.
The minister has promoted the coalition as a platform through which politicians from different parties can mobilise support for Mr Tinubu’s re-election without necessarily abandoning their existing party affiliations.
Mr Wike remains a member of the PDP, despite serving in Mr Tinubu’s APC-led federal government. His support for the president has repeatedly put him at odds with sections of his party, which has struggled with internal divisions and questions over its political direction.
At Monday’s meeting, Mr Wike also declared himself coordinator of Mr Tinubu’s re-election campaign in the FCT and Rivers State.
Participants drawn from the PDP and APC reportedly agreed to work together for Mr Tinubu’s second term and support APC candidates for the FCT senatorial and House of Representatives seats.
The latest declaration further shows Mr Wike’s willingness to pursue electoral alliances across party lines, even when doing so means campaigning against candidates of the party to which he formally belongs.