The Resource Centre for Human Rights and Civic Education (CHRICED) has called on President Bola Tinubu to relieve Nyesom Wike as Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) over his confrontation with a naval officer.
Development Diaries reports that the FCT minister called a naval officer a fool during a land enforcement exercise in the Gaduwa District area of the capital.
A now viral video shows the minister angrily challenging the military personnel allegedly deployed to prevent FCT officials from carrying out a demolition exercise on the contested site.
In a statement issued by the organisation’s Executive Director, Ibrahim Zikirullahi, he said he was appalled by the minister’s ‘reckless display of arrogance, verbal abuse, and blatant disregard for the dignity of a serving military officer’.
He noted that Wike’s conduct reflected ‘a disturbing pattern of impunity and abuse of power that undermines the rule of law and the morale of the armed forces’.
While commending the military officer for maintaining professionalism and restraint, he said, ‘The officer’s composure in the face of provocation demonstrated the very values of discipline and respect that our leaders should emulate’.
CHRICED urged President Tinubu to dismiss the minister, saying the president must ‘rise above political loyalties and act in the national interest’.
The organisation also called on the National Assembly, civil society, and Nigerians to condemn the act, warning that ‘silence in the face of such impunity is complicity’.