Wike admits sacrificing a 'good' PDP candidate in Edo to stop Obaseki from choosing successor

• FCT Minister Nyesom Wike says he worked against PDP candidate Asue Ighodalo in the 2024 Edo governorship election.

• He said he considered Ighodalo a good candidate but did not want former Governor Godwin Obaseki to choose his successor.

• Wike also claimed an alliance between PDP figures and APC members helped secure the party's victory in Edo.

FCT Minister Nyesom Wike has stirred conversation after saying he worked against the Peoples Democratic Party's candidate in the 2024 Edo governorship election, Asue Ighodalo, even though he regarded him as a good candidate, because he did not want former Governor Godwin Obaseki to produce his successor.

Wike made the remarks on Monday at a stakeholders' meeting of the Rainbow Coalition in Abuja, where he credited an alliance between legacy PDP figures and the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the APC's victory. "I was behind it, and I don't have any regrets about it," he said.

He said Ighodalo, whom he described as a very good candidate and a former bank director, visited his house more than three times to ask for his support. 

Wike said he told him that, good candidate or not, the election was a contest between his camp and Obaseki, whom he called an ungrateful person, and that returning Ighodalo would amount to bringing Obaseki back. "You have to fail," Wike said he told him, and "he failed."

He dismissed claims that no such coalition existed, saying people who made them were not telling the truth. He said Governor Monday Okpebholo and Senator Adams Oshiomhole, who represents Edo North, could attest to the role the alliance played. That is Wike's account, and none of the affected parties has provided confirmation.

Okpebholo, the APC candidate, defeated Ighodalo, who was backed by Obaseki, in the September 2024 election. Wike remains a PDP member while serving in President Bola Tinubu's administration.

The comments come amid renewed attention on the Rainbow Coalition and efforts by political actors to build alliances ahead of the 2027 general elections.

There has been no response from Ighodalo, Obaseki or the PDP.

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