Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, has described Senator Ireti Kingibe as an “illiterate” and declared that she would not return to the Senate, following her allegations that he secured loans for capital projects in Abuja without the National Assembly’s approval.
Wike made the remarks on Tuesday while responding to the lawmaker’s claims after inspecting ongoing projects in the nation’s capital.
He questioned how any government official could obtain a loan without following the required legislative procedures, insisting that such borrowing must be captured in the budget.
“She’s an illiterate, with all due respect, and that’s why she’s not going back to the Senate,” the minister said.
Wike added that loans for government projects were normally included in the budget for legislative consideration.
Dismissing Kingibe’s political relevance, the minister claimed that residents of the FCT had already made their choice to support President Bola Tinubu and Senator Philip Aduda.
He described Kingibe as an outgoing senator, saying: “She’s already packing her things out. The people have made a choice; they are going to support President Tinubu and Sen. Philip Adusa, so let us not waste our time reacting to an ex-senator in all ramifications.”
Wike also suggested that Kingibe’s allegations were prompted by the pace of infrastructure development in Abuja.
According to him, the senator had previously accused his administration of doing nothing but had now shifted her criticism to the loans allegedly obtained for the projects.
“I thought she criticized that I’m doing nothing. So now her problem is that I took a loan. Assuming I took a loan, our concern should have been: are we applying the loan to fulfill the interest of residents?” he said.
The minister maintained that the focus should be on whether any borrowed funds were being used to meet the needs of FCT residents.
“She believes that with the kind of infrastructure we are doing, we must have taken a loan. Too bad for her. Too bad,” Wike added.
