The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has denied any role in the court judgment that removed Imo State Governor Hope Uzodimma as the APC candidate for Imo West Senatorial District in the 2027 election.
Speaking during his monthly media chat in Port Harcourt on Thursday, Wike described those linking him to the October 29 Federal High Court ruling in favour of former Governor Rochas Okorocha as mischievous, insisting: “I didn’t go to court. I’m not in APC. I don’t know what the issue is”.
The remarks followed a Federal High Court judgment in Abuja that nullified Uzodimma’s recognition as the APC candidate for Imo West in the 2027 elections.
Justice Obiora Egwuatu found that former Gov. Rochas Okorocha won the party’s May 18 primary and ordered INEC to recognize him instead.
Wike acknowledged a political disagreement with Uzodimma over the “Rainbow Coalition,” an effort to consolidate support for President Bola Tinubu’s 2027 re-election campaign.
He rejected the inference that the dispute translated into behind-the-scenes involvement in the court case.
“People are saying that because a day before that judgment he had openly warned his people there’s no Rainbow Coalition,” Wike said.
“So when the judgment came, they said it was me. How could it have been me?, the Minister asked.
He said his immediate priority is Tinubu’s re-election, adding that he would not allow controversies unrelated to that assignment to divert his attention.
“As it is today, my priority is to ensure that the President emerges victorious in the 2027 presidential elections,” he said.
Wike signaled that he would offer a fuller account of the political tensions after the presidential election.
“By the time the presidential election is over, I will speak out,” he said. “Everything has its own time,”he added.
For now, he said, his energy remains fixed on mobilizing support for the President—and on rebutting what he characterized as efforts to draw him into a legal fight he says he knows nothing about.
