Trending 
Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has denied claims by Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde that he assured President Bola Tinubu he would “hold down” the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Wike dismissed the allegation during a media chat with journalists on Monday, 29 December 2025, in Rivers State, describing it as false, unfair and misleading.
“It’s unfortunate,” Wike said. “First of all, you ask yourself, what was that meeting? What was the purpose of that meeting? That would have led me to say, Mr President, I will hold PDP for you.”
He questioned why Makinde failed to raise the issue earlier if such a statement had indeed been made.
“Why did Seyi Makinde not come up all this while to tell the party, ‘see what Wike is doing’? I was in a meeting. I see what Wike said. It’s not correct,” he said.
Wike insisted that no meeting was arranged specifically to assure the president of control over the PDP.
“There was nothing like a meeting we booked to go and see Mr President. So it is completely out of place for anybody to say that in that meeting, I said to Mr President, I will hold PDP down for you,” he stated.
Makinde had alleged during a media interaction on Tuesday, 23 December 2025, that Wike made the pledge during a meeting with President Tinubu.
“And let me put the record straight. There was no such meeting. Rather, my humble self, the former governor of Benue State, Ortom; the former governor of Abia, Ikpeazu; the former governor of Enugu State, Ugwuanyi; and Seyi Makinde, we went to see the president,” he said.
According to Wike, the meeting took place after the elections and focused on general political discussions.
“Yes, we went to see the president to discuss. Of course, elections were over. To discuss certain things,” he explained, adding that the president’s chief of staff was present as expected.
Wike accused Makinde of acting out of frustration and attempting to rewrite events.
“That’s very unfair, very, very unfair, totally unfair. And you see, I told everybody, frustration — if you can see it, if you watch Seyi Makinde on that media chat, you can see frustration,” he said.
He also took a swipe at Makinde’s political approach, arguing that ambition must align with party norms.
“Politics is not like being a contractor with Shell. Politics is not like being a contractor with a Mobil. It has different rules,” Wike said.
“There’s nothing wrong in having ambition. But ambition must be tailored according to the rules. He has not even had the guts to tell us that he wants to run for president.”
Wike went further to blame Makinde’s ambitions for the internal crisis rocking the PDP.
“How did PDP enter this crisis? It is Seyi Makinde’s ambition,” he said. “He went and arranged with some people to make sure that the secretary is ousted.”
He cited the legal tussle involving former PDP National Secretary Sam Anyanwu as an example, noting that the party had agreed to move on after the Court of Appeal ruled in Anyanwu’s favour.
“On appeal, Sam Anyanwu won. We all agreed for the party to move on,” Wike said. “Why not allow this to go on? We have only one year. So what are you pursuing?”
