If the reports are to be believed, Senator Ireti Kingibe and FCT Minister Nyesom Wike have never once met privately as both assumed office in 2023. That says extra on their present quarrel than any of the insults now being traded betwixt them.
Wike has lengthy been Aduda’s political ally, and Kingibe defeated Aduda to win the FCT seat in 2023, a outcome that establish structural rivalry amid the minister and the senator from the outset.
Nothing fresh there, to be honest.
It held for smaller than a year in advance of collapsing as Abuja’s debt figures kept climbing.
There was a compact thaw in May 2025, when Kingibe praised Wike’s N1.78 trillion budget presentation and Wike publicly declared their rift over.
Wike rejected the state, insisting due address alongside was followed.
The dispute began over numbers. Kingibe, citing Debt Management Office figures, said Abuja’s debt climbed from N88.5 billion in August 2023 to N389 billion by March 2026, and alleged the loans lacked Countrywide Assembly approval.
During a road inspection on Tuesday, he declared that Kingibe will not result to the Senate in 2027, calling her an illiterate on community support and endorsing former senator Philip Aduda as her replacement.
Wike has seeing that gone additional than defending the loans.
Deputy Spokesman Philip Agbese said there was no evidence of any breach, because borrowing for infrastructure is lawful once required approvals exist, a finding that has not ended the argument within the two Abuja figures.
The House of Representatives sided alongside Wike.
For Kingibe, those projects are exactly what she wants investigated.
Wike, meanwhile, is folding the fight into his 2027 messaging, employing apparent road projects across Abuja as evidence for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s file.
Kingibe has responded that power belongs to God and that Wike cannot prevent her, suggesting his focus on her stems from her opposition party membership rather than legitimate worry for FCT residents.
Source: Kingibe and the Abuja Battle: When a Loan Dispute Became a 2027 Showdown
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