Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, has said he is not interested in being friends with the Senator representing FCT, Ireti Kingibe.
He told Kingibe that he cannot be coerced into becoming her friend. Wike accused the senator of blackmailing him instead of communicating her problems through the right channels or better still focusing on her oversight functions.
He stated this during an interview with a cross section of journalists in Abuja, where he claimed that Kingibe is aggrieved because the Senate President snubbed her for the position of the Senate Committee on FCT.
Wike said; “I don’t want to be personal…she’s the Senator for FCT. She went around saying ‘oh, oh Wike is busy scraping roads…I should leave the roads till when the potholes come?
“Somebody wants to be your friend and you say ‘I don’t want to be your friend. Is it by force?’ The problem is that she wanted to be Chairman, Senate Committee on FCT and the Senate President said ‘I’m not giving you’.
‘What are you going to supervise me? You cannot supervise me. What is her interest, that I must see her? If I have a problem I’ll go and see her. I don’t have a problem. Nobody can intimidate me. Look, I was a Minister before. I became a governor of one of the most important states in Nigeria and she thinks that the only way you can bring me is to go to Channel, TVC, saying the Minister is not carrying me along.
“I don’t have the back to carry. It’s not about blackmailing. Do the right thing. You know her problem? She ran election with my friend Philip Aduda and she sees me taking Philip everywhere instead of her being the Senator. Should I abandon my friend because she failed election?”