This is the concluding part of Media chat by the FCT minister Nyesom Wike on Friday.
By Emmanuel Agaji
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Honourable Minister, if I may deviate a bit from politics, a case currently ongoing, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu case is in court. There was a protest on Monday but he was said to open his defence yesterday and he was going to call compellable witness alongside a number of other notable Nigerians, the former Attorney General, some former governors as well, and another minister, Dave Umahi, was listed as well. I do not know if you are aware of this, and why it is that you have been listed as one of the witnesses in this case and if you will attend?
If you see Nnamdi Kanu, you ask him, why did he list me? I did not go to say, I want to be a witness, you are the one saying that. So if you see him, ask him, why did you list Wike as one of your witnesses?
You don’t become a witness by reading newspaper. Nobody has served me any process, nobody has to subpoena me. So because I saw Wike is listed, therefore, I’m going to run helter-skelter, no, you don’t do that.
If I am served, if I am subpoenaed to come and give witness, or to give evidence, I must obey the court, I must appear. But not on pages of newspapers, nobody does that.
And you should ask Kanu as to why I should be listed, he who chooses me to be there, he should ask him the question. But if I am subpoenaed to come, go home and sleep, I will be there.
Are you a little curious as to, I don’t know why you’ve been listed? And then two, this question of a political solution to this matter; is this something you’ve also considered as well? I know it’s not within your purview.
When you talk about curiosity, what’s my business there? They know, they have the reasons, they know why. So I will not begin to speculate. I don’t know. As for a political solution, I don’t want to comment on that.
Honourable Minister, you are like the governor of the FCT, a lot of Abuja residents, your own residents, were unhappy with the way the city was disrupted on Monday. Many people couldn’t go to work because of all of this. As someone who is in charge of the city, sir, what do you do to relate to the security agencies and others to assure residents that their businesses, their houses will not be affected, how can you make them feel more comfortable?
I don’t see what was disrupted. The security agencies have to provide security to make sure that nothing happened, nothing was disrupted. So when you say everywhere was disrupted, somebody was trying to threaten the security of the place and security agencies said, no, you cannot do that.
And they assured the residents that, go about your businesses, nothing will happen. Yes, within some areas, yes, because of insecurity, some people were not able to carry out their businesses but that does not mean that the entire city was disrupted. No, no, this is not correct.
Did you try to influence the choice of the INEC National Chairman? Because there were insinuations that you even reached out to some members of the Council of State not to attend the last Council of State because the person that had been nominated by the President was not the person you want.
Why do you people always read Sahara Reporters? So why is that you sit down and you…even if you don’t have anything to do, why do you listen to Sahara Reporters? Is there anything Sahara Reporters have carried about me that is correct? What is the basis? And look at the story. How could it be…
It gained traction because you were supposed to be at that Council of State meeting and you were not there. And it was speculated that you were angry with the President and that was why you asked the Minister of State to go and attend.
Anyway, the point I’m making, first of all, I told Mr. President, I took permission because already there was an engagement. So I told my Minister of State, you have to attend, it’s not about person, its office. If my Minister of State attended, I have attended because if I’m there, she will not be there.
It’s like in NEC meeting on Thursday yesterday. I was not there. I told her to go and represent me because I had to give a lecture at ECOWAS. I don’t understand people. Now you said I influence former heads of state. Is that a joke or what?
And then, sometimes, like I said, you don’t need to bother yourself about some of these junks but you were told that they banned me from having a media chat. So, it’s totally rubbish.
And let us not continue to give these people the opportunity to write whatever they want to. There are some stories you read. You don’t even need to call the person. Did this thing happen because you know it’s complete rubbish.
It is my advice, too, that you, the media, should try as much as you can to ascertain the truth. You owe the public the duty to say what is the truth and not on emotion on people who carry placards on television. Then you believe that oh, they are suffering and this and that, all these things could be set up. So you owe us that responsibility.
CONCLUDED
