A former national chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, Maxi Okwu has criticized the handling of the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Okwu made this known in an exclusive interview with Daily Post.

He described the PDP as a total failure who have made the former Rivers State Governor a "rogue element."

"Wike has become a rogue element as far as I am concerned. I don’t know what he is still doing in the PDP. The PDP is a total failure. How can they allow a man who is wearing a coat of many colours to ride roughshod over them? You can see how the national body gave him the PDP structures in Rivers; I don’t know how he did it," he said.

"Honestly, that is unbelievable, though I heard that his man, the acting chairman, has stepped down and there could be changes. But honestly, I can say that Wike is a magician, considering the way he has been able to play from all sides and control the destinies of some people in the APC and still remain in charge as a capon in the PDP."

"Honestly, PDP is a great disappointment in my humble submission; they are not playing the opposition role the way it should be. Look at the way the APC fought them yard for yard, tooth for tooth; now they seem to have become beholden to the APC, and it is the biggest party after the APC."

Wike has been at loggerheads with the leadership of the party who have accused him of anti-party activities.

In a recent interview on Channels Television's Politics Today, he said he doesn't regret working against the party in the lead up to the 2023 presidential elections.

Defending his decision to go contrary to the party, he stressed that his actions were taken for the sake of justice and fairness.

“For the presidential election, I said I am going to support equity, fairness, and justice. In the other one, I am going to support my party, and that is why we won the governor, National Assembly election,” Wike said.
“For the presidential, I have no apologies because I don’t believe in injustice. Today people say ‘discipline Wike, he did anti-party.’ I did not do anti-party,” Wike said.

In the build-up to the 2023 general elections, Wike, then governor of Rivers State, joined forces with four other aggrieved PDP governors, including Samuel Ortom (Benue), Seyi Makinde (Oyo), Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia), and Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Enugu) against Atiku’s ambition.

The five governors had been consistent in their demand that Senator Iyorchia Ayu step down as PDP national chairman as a precondition for them to support the presidential ambition of the party’s flag bearer, Atiku Abubakar.

Atiku later lost the presidential election to the then candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, under whose government he is serving as a minister.