The Board of Trustees of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has urged the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Nyesom Wike to remain focused, praising his performance in government even as he reiterated support for President Bola Tinubu’s re-election bid in 2027.
A delegation of PDP trustees visited Wike at his Abuja residence to offer condolences over the death of Dan Orbih, the party’s national vice chairman for the South South region and a member of the board.
The delegation, led by the board’s chairman, former Senator Mao Ohuabunwa, described Orbih’s death as a painful loss for the party and for Minister Wike, who had maintained a close political relationship with the late party official.
“This is a delegation of select members of the Board of Trustees,” Ohuabunwa told journalists after the meeting.
He said the group was drawn largely from the FCT area but included representatives of Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones.
Ohuabunwa said the trustees had come both to console Minister Wike and to encourage him to remain committed to his political positions and public duties.
“Everything he has been saying about the party is nothing but the truth,” he said.
“When he was offered this appointment, he wrote the party at all levels and the party unanimously accepted and asked him to go and represent the party.”
He said the BoT, which he described as the party’s “conscience” and “compass,” was proud of Minister Wike’s record, capacity and performance as FCT minister.
The delegation included former Senator Zainab Kure, former Sports Minister Damishi Sango and BoT Secretary Isah Dansidi.
Minister Wike in his remarks thanked the trustees for the visit and said he would remain in the PDP and work with other members to rebuild the party, despite continuing disagreements over its direction and his role in the Tinubu administration.
He called Orbih’s death an irreparable loss and credited him with playing a decisive role in his emergence as governor of Rivers State in 2015.
“God used Dan Orbih to make me a governor,” Wike said.
At the time, he said, a crisis had engulfed the PDP in Rivers State, while Orbih – then chairman of the party in Edo State, stood by what Wike called the truth.
Minister Wike also restated his support for President Tinubu’s re-election in 2027, a stance likely to deepen tensions within the PDP, which is expected to field candidates against the ruling All Progressives Congress at the presidential and other levels.
“After supporting President Tinubu in 2023, it will be wrong of me to support another person to face him when he is seeking re-election,” Wike said.
He added that his position should not prevent the PDP from contesting governorship, legislative and other subnational elections.
NewsQuest reports that Minister Wike, who is former Rivers State Governor and a leading PDP figure, has served in President Tinubu’s cabinet since 2023, creating an unusual political arrangement in which a prominent opposition politician occupies one of the most influential positions in an APC-led Federal Government.
