Nyesom Wike, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, has accused a former Governor of Rivers State, Peter Odili, of scuttling the peace agreement brokered by President Bola Tinubu to resolve the ongoing political crisis in the oil-rich state.

Wike made this known at a reception organised to host Rivers stakeholders last Friday.

Rivers has been engulfed in a messy political feud between Wike and his predecessor, Governor Siminalyi Fubara. The two former allies are jostling to control the state's political machinery.

At a crucial meeting in the Presidential Villa in 2023, President Tinubu and other stakeholders, including Odili brokered an eight-point peace agreement signed by the two warring parties.

However, the peace accord has fallen apart as Fubara claimed that he was ambushed into signing the deal with Wike's camp, leading to an escalation of the feud.

Meanwhile, Odili recently accused Wike of promoting self-interest, praising Fubara for preventing the minister from turning the state into his private estate.

“It has now been over 12 months since the 25th of October 2023, when a fierce existential fight, though unnecessary, was waged against Governor Fubara over the soul of Rivers State.

“With assuring fortitude, Governor Fubara confronted the challenge, prevented the quest by one man to capture the state as a private estate, emancipated Rivers people, steadied governance, and made civil servants and Rivers people happier, as it used to be until I left office in 2007,” the two-term Governor said.

Wike blasts Odili

Speaking on Friday, the FCT minister fired back at Odili, insisting that he maintained the best governor the state had ever produced.

“I am trying to make Rivers State the medical hub of South-South Nigeria. How did I now come to convert Rivers State into a personal estate?

“I am the best governor that Rivers State has ever produced. How did I convert Rivers State into my personal estate? And people will not answer a simple question?” Wike questioned.

“He (Odili) said somebody is converting Rivers State to his personal estate and we have now come to show statistics that it is not correct. The man converting Rivers State to a personal estate is you, and to crown it all, you are now the general overseer."

Wike further said that Odili is encouraging Fubara to disobey the President, insisting that he would not apologise to the former governor.

“They said Tinubu should be careful, but Tinubu is unlike you. Tinubu called Rivers people, your elder statesman (Odili), supposedly. You are Tinubu’s colleague, the President’s colleague, and Mr President read this thing (peace agreement) to them, and you read it and came back home.

“Ordinarily, what you (Odili) should have done was to call Mr President back and say, ‘Mr President, I have tried, we have implemented A, B, C, D, E, it remains F, G, H. Is there any way we can meet again to reconcile these F, G, H?’ Never, rather you encouraged him (Fubara) to disobey everything Mr President said,” Wike said.