Edo 2024 Governorship Poll: I Made Sure PDP’s Asue Ighodalo Lost – Wike
The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has admitted that he worked against Asue Ighodalo, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate in the 2024 Edo governorship election, because he did not…
Wike's admission is the latest flashpoint in the long-running feud within the Peoples Democratic Party between a faction loyal to him and the party's leadership, a rift that has simmered since the 2023 presidential primaries when he backed Bola Tinubu's APC over his own party's candidate, Atiku Abubakar. As FCT Minister under an APC administration while still identifying as a PDP member, Wike has repeatedly clashed with the PDP's national leadership and governors seen as hostile to him, accusing them of working against his interests in Rivers State and beyond.
The Edo governorship election, won by the APC's Monday Okpebholo, dealt the PDP a significant blow in a state it had hoped to retain. Wike's claim that he actively worked to ensure Ighodalo's defeat, rather than merely staying neutral, adds a new dimension to questions about the extent of his influence within the party and whether PDP governors and chieftains sympathetic to him coordinated against their own candidate. The coverage so far centres on Wike's own account of events; independent confirmation from Ighodalo, the PDP leadership, or other actors named in the alleged scheme has not been reported.