Ireti Kingibe, Senator representing the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), has reacted to comments by the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, threatening to unseat her in 2027.
Kingibe and Wike have been at loggerheads since they assumed their respective offices.
Speaking at the Flag-off of the Mabushi Bus Terminal in Abuja earlier this month, the minister said the FCT senator would lose the support of residents in the nation’s capital in the 2027 general elections.
Wike said it was disheartening that instead of collaborating with the FCT Administration, Kingibe was instead angry that residents were praising the President Bola Tinubu-led administration.
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Wike also told the senator to hang herself on a transformer if she was unhappy with his performance in FCT.
Reacting, Kinigibe said Wike does not understand the concept of leadership in FCT, and courtesy demands that the Minister should not speak to her in such a manner.
In an interview on Channels Tv’s Political Paradigm, the LP senator said Wike should apologise to her as she was far older than him.
She said, “He doesn’t obviously understand the concept of the FCT. If he did, it is nothing personal. He says, ‘I don’t want to be her friend.’ How does governance translate into friendship?
“I’m actually willing to do everything to work with the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory as long as he apologises first for saying I should go and hang on a transformer.
“Once he does that, it is all over. We can start afresh but until then, everybody stays in your lane. With all due respect, I am so much older than him. Even courtesy demands he should not speak to me like that.”