Zamfara State Governor Dauda Lawal has asked Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, to clarify his political allegiance amid his reported involvement with the Rainbow Coalition.
Lawal said Wike could not simultaneously support the All Progressives Congress (APC) and other political parties.
Wike, a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has been associated with the Rainbow Coalition, a cross-party political platform seeking to mobilise support for President Bola Tinubu’s 2027 re-election bid.
However, APC governors have distanced themselves from the coalition. The Progressives Governors Forum (PGF), the umbrella body of APC governors, has argued that such an alliance could undermine the President’s re-election efforts.
Speaking in an interview with Channels Television’s Inside Sources on the sidelines of the 81st United Nations General Assembly in New York, Lawal said Wike needed to choose where his political allegiance lay.
“Our message is very, very clear: be on one side. You can’t be on two sides. If you are in APC, please come out and support the APC, not you are supporting APC here and you are supporting some other political parties somewhere else,” he said.
Lawal said the APC governors would maintain their position regardless of Wike’s comments on the matter.
“We maintain our stand and the message is very clear. He can speak, he can say whatever he wants to say, but our position has been very clear, APC all the way from head to toe,” he said.
Asked whether the governors were effectively asking Wike to join the APC, Lawal replied, “Exactly.”
The Zamfara governor added that he would discuss Wike’s political position with President Tinubu when the President returns from his working vacation in France.
“It’s something I will discuss with the President when he comes back. Let there be a clear line where this guy belongs to. It’s either he is in APC or he is out, simple. So I go with my brothers, the governors,” he said.
