President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, yesterday, gave an insight into why former Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, was nominated into the Federal Executive Council (FEC) by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. According to a statement issued by Jackson Udom, Special Assistant, Media to the President of the Senate, Akpabio stated that the president was compelled to nominate the former Rivers dued to past performance in public office.
According to Udom, Akpabio expressed the view while speaking at a book launch to mark the 57th birthday celebration of the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in Port SAN, did not object and Justice Emeka Nwite, accordingly granted the request. After the defendant had taken his plea, Daudu made clarifications on the reasons he had not been in court during the previous hearings. “I would like to place on record that for any impression that might have been created that the defendant did not wish to appear before your Lordship, coincidentally, the ruling on my Lord’s sitting this morning dealt with the issue of jurisdiction. “What the defendant did was to ask his counsel to challenge the jurisdiction of the court, which got to the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court. “So it was not a wishful disrespect but he was only trying to defend himself. So we all hold your Lordship in high esteem. If that impression must have been, he should not have presented himself for arraignment. That episode is gone and things are clearer now,” the counsel stated.
While moving an application for bail, he assured that the former governor would always be present in court for the trial. “I am saying this with the highest sense of responsibili- ty that the defendant, a twoterm governor of Kogi State, who travelled only two times out of his eight years in service, will always be present in court at all times. Harcourt, the state capital. Senator Akpabio described the celebrant as a workaholic and someone who gives his best at any office he found himself. He said: “Let me tell you why you were nominated into the FEC by President Tinubu despite being an opposition politician. Your performance, as a local government chairman, chief of staff to the Rivers State Government, minister and twoterm governor gave you the job. “You have made us proud as the FCT minister. You have turned Abuja into a model city befitting the capital of a country. You are a very committed public officer who has no room for excuses on any given task. In less than two years, you have turned Abuja into a huge construction site”, Akpabio noted.
Speaking further, Senator Akpabio, said, “Today, we gather to celebrate not just the years in your life, but the life in your years. We have come to honour not just the duration of your life but the donation of your life and the countless ways you’ve enriched the lives of the people around you. “Born in the tumultuous year of 1967, when the fabric of our nation was being tested in the fires of conflict, you emerged, my dear Wike, not in the safety of calm waters but amid the storm itself. You might have chosen to arrive in more tranquil times, but instead, you bravely came forth into the fray. It is perhaps this very fortitude that has shaped your character, allowing you to rise like an eagle, soaring high above the tempests that beset us. “As a two-term governor, you have been a leader of the people, a visionary who acts with purpose, and a friend whose care for others knows no bounds. Your dedication to uplifting communities, as a Governor and now as an Honourable Minister, has left an indelible mark upon our nation’s history.
