The Coalition of River Leaders of Thoughts has expressed confidence in the ability of the Minister of Federal Capital Territory, Mr Nyesom Wike, to deliver on the mandate of the nation’s capital.

This is contained in a statement jointly signed by the Chairman, Chief Sunnie Chukumele and Secretary, Mr Josiah Onoriode, on Wednesday in Abuja.

They described those recently calling for the sack of the FCT minister as agents of division.

According to them, any Nigerian has the right to be appointed in whatever capacity that the President and Commander-in-Chief of Armed Forces deems fit.

“President Bola Tinubu has confidence in and believes in his capacity, hence, he appointed him as Minister of the Federal Republic.

“From all indications, Wike is ready to transform Abuja into a mega city. He has strategised to increase the revenue base of the FCT and is yielding results already. We believe in his capacity. The recent outburst from a Muslim cleric regarding who should and should not be appointed minister of the FCT is regrettable and could be described as hate speech.

“In fact, the outburst came as an attack on our son who was meritoriously appointed by Tinubu as minister of the FCT,’’ the coalition said.

It emphasised that the security and intelligence community in Nigeria should have been seen to have taken decisive action on the cleric as a critical and needed step to assuage the fears of the conscious populace of Nigeria.

 According to the group, the negative impacts of such an outburst from a cleric definitely affects investment decisions on Nigeria by the much sought after foreign investors which Tinubu is trying to woo.

“We want to advise that whenever the cleric makes such a comment again, he should be invited by the security services and other agencies to answer questions. Nigeria belongs to Nigerians,’’ the coalition stated.

 (NAN)