Human rights lawyer, Deji Adeyanju has told the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike that he would one day account for the land he has been seizing in FCT.
Adeyanju stated this on Friday during a press conference in Abuja, during which he was replying to the FCT minister who held a press conference on Thursday, saying, “I saw one young man, they call him Adeyanju. He is from Kogi State. This young boy came to me that he wanted to be the National Publicity Secretary of the PDP and I said no.
“I said he won’t be, and he was not.“I have no regret about it. He has suddenly become a civil society activist. He has no job and that’s why he decided to turn to a civil society activist,” Wike had stated.
The Minister had called the press conference after Adeyanju led victims of house demolition carried out by the minister in protest.
But Adeyanju, who mocked the Minister said his only crime was challenging Wike over his untoward action, describing the minister as someone who hates constructive criticism.
While vowing that he won’t stop criticising the minister whenever he does what is not right and legal, he said the minister is attracting criticisms for “some of his bad policies, his anti-people policy in the FCT and issues around land grabbing of poor people’s homes and giving it to his friends, which he admitted in his reply.“He has not faulted us on the allegations we raised. Rather he has said yes, that he is giving the land that he is grabbing from poor people to his friends, but that, should he give the land to his enemies?“These are the kind of people that are ruling in our country, people that should be in jail for corruption, for stealing, for electoral fraud. They are the ones who want to give lectures on morality.”
Adeyanju agreed that he went to solicit support from Wike then as governor of oil-rich Rivers State just like he sought the support of other governors, stakeholders, and party top shots dismissing Wike as not being more important than the others.
Adeyanju said, “He allegedly said that I came to him, I begged him to be national public secretary of PDP.
“Everyone knows I resigned from politics eight years ago. And that event that he’s talking about happened before I resigned from politics. Since my decision on politics, I have been jailed, I have been harassed, I have been beaten on the street.
While revealing that “We have maintained communications with him,”
the activist further said, “Many times when I criticized him, he called me and said he did not want friendship with me again. He does not like to be criticized.”He said, “I didn’t meet only Wike. I met him when I was still active in politics. I met every governor of the PDP then. I’ve never seen where consultation with party leaders is tagged begging.”
The lawyer explained Wike “never said to my face that he would not support me” contrary to what the minister said on Thursday that he said no when he was approached.
“In fact, when I was actively in politics, he told me twice (that he would support me), he supported me twice.”He added, “Assuming without conceding that I even went and begged him, which is false, should he call the press conference and start crying eight years later, almost nine years later, that I came to him?
“Every PDP governor then, all PDP stakeholders, I consulted with them.“I went around all the zones in this country. Both when I wanted to be the deputy publicity secretary, and then when the party zoned the position of the publicity secretary to my zone in the North Central, I still went around.
“Everybody endorsed me. David Mark (Ex-Senate President), and the leaders from the North Central endorsed me. In fact, my state leaders, and state caucus, told everybody running from Kogi to step down for me,” he said.
He accused Wike of turning against him because he joined others to oppose him for bringing Ali Modu-Sherif (former Borno State governor) and Jimmy Agbaje (former governorship candidate of the PDP in Lagos), describing Wike’s action as “selfish” and “personal.”
He noted that after Modu-Sherif “showed him agony, he came back again, and was crying.”
