Dele Momodu accuses Wike of driving Peter Obi out of PDP

Chief Dele Momodu, the publisher of Ovation magazine and a prominent figure in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has accused Nyesom Wike, the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), of causing Peter Obi to leave the party ahead of the 2023 elections.

In an interview on Arise Television on Wednesday, Momodu stated that Wike’s actions led Obi to abandon the PDP and join the Labour Party (LP), where he later became the presidential candidate.

Momodu explained that prior to the 2023 general election, PDP’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, had proposed that the party cede the presidency to the Southeast, rather than continuing with a regional rotation.

Momodu suggested that Wike could have benefited from Atiku’s stance if he had supported the Southeast’s bid.

However, according to Momodu, Wike distanced himself from the Southeast by declaring that he was not Igbo and had no interest in supporting an Igbo agenda.

“Wike disqualified himself by saying he’s not an Igbo man, and he is from South-South,” Momodu remarked. “This allowed him to frustrate Obi out of the party.”

Momodu further claimed that, despite the PDP’s original intentions to consider zoning its presidential ticket to the Southeast, Wike and his supporters used the issue of regional zoning to push a north-south agenda, eventually clearing the way for Wike to pursue the party’s presidential nomination.

The PDP leader also noted that the party’s zoning issue only became problematic after Wike and his allies began using it to reshape the party’s leadership direction.