Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, has engaged in a spat with Bayelsa State governor, Douye Diri, for directing that a planned mega rally and inauguration of a support group loyal to him must not hold in the state over security concerns.

Mr Diri had on Thursday asked youths, elders, and traditional rulers to be alert and ordered security agencies to bar Mr Wike, who is a fellow member of the Peoples Democratic Party, from gaining entry into the state to hold a proposed meeting with a suspended party member in the state, George Turner, billed for Tombia Roundabout.

Stating that his government would not allow crisis merchants such as Mr Turner, who he claimed had been enlisted to create factions in the party in the state, to threaten the peace in the state, Mr Diri warned that no public place in the state should be used for any event without approval.

But Mr Wike, responding through his spokesperson, Lere Olayinka, in a post on X on Friday, asked Mr Diri to stop bothering himself over nothing, adding that although he wasn’t coming to Bayelsa, the governor was not capable of stopping him if he wanted to.

“Governor Diri of Bayelsa State should rest abeg. He should stop giving himself High Blood Pressure on top of nothing. Wike is not coming to Bayelsa State for anything. But if Wike wants to come to Bayelsa, one million Governor Diri can’t stop him. DAZZOL,” Mr Olayinka wrote.

Mr Olayinka had also onThursday, described Mr Diri’s alarm regarding security concerns about a planned mega rally as “shamefully baseless” and an attempted “cover-up for his failure,” urging him to face his business of governance because the minister would have informed security agencies himself if he were going to attend any rally.

He said, “It is so unfortunate that a Governor with all the security apparatus available to him could go on national television on mere suspicion of people planning a rally, which is their right to hold.”

While he stated that Nigerians have the right to support anyone, anywhere, and anytime, he added, “Is this how much the governor is afraid of Wike? Can the governor stop people from holding rallies in the state if they want to?”

He also said Mr Diri, while seeking reelection, was brought to Mr Wike “like a thief in the night” by the minister of state for petroleum, Heineken Lokpobiri, along with David Lyon.

“As he was kneeling down, begging Wike to support him, he (Wike) was telling him, ‘No, don’t do that, you’re a governor, don’t do that.’ Shamefully, the same Wike has now become someone he goes about disparaging, just to cover up his inadequacies. It’s so obvious that some people don’t have a conscience and it’s unfortunate,” Mr Olayinka added.

This followed the state of emergency declaration in Rivers State and the six-month suspension of Governor Siminalayi Fubara, his deputy Ngozi Odu, and the state assembly by President Bola Tinubu over the 14-month-old struggle for the control of the state’s political structure involving Mr Wike.