Osadolor, who gave the hint in a telephone conversation with The PUNCH on Tuesday, noted that the leadership of the party had decided to isolate Wike and render him inconsequential in the affairs of the PDP.

According to him, Wike’s recent public outings wherein he appeared to be leaning towards the All Progressives Congress, give him away as a man in perpetual craving for the spotlight at all times and regardless of the cost to his image as an opposition political leader.

He said, “The PDP has ignored Wike because the man is no longer himself. There are more ways to deal with people apart from sanctioning them. You can keep someone in isolation. He (Wike) can boast that he is the one that stayed away but is it not better to stay away than come to party activities and nobody wants to associate with you? He has been given a cold treatment because he went to court to procure a judgment that says he cannot be suspended but there is no judgment that says he cannot be avoided. That is what the PDP has been doing to him and technically, if Wike wants to say the truth, he will tell you that he is no longer a member of the PDP. No PDP leader or member behaves the way he does.”

But in a swift reaction, a chieftain of the PDP and immediate past Rivers State Commissioner for Information and Communications, Chris Finebone, said Wike remained a bona fide member of the opposition party.

Describing Osadolor’s comments as wishful thinking, Finebone said he does not have any power to speak for the party.

He stated, “We can’t identify who he represents, but I think it is wishful thinking. It is wishful thinking and the man who is said to have said that is inconsequential as far as we are concerned.

“And so, whatever he has said is of no effect. His Excellency, the former Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, is 110 per cent a member of PDP and nothing has changed. And nothing can change it.”

On the accusation that Wike has been hobnobbing with Tinubu, he said it was petty and frivolous.

This is just as Osadolor, who doubles as the Deputy National Youth Leader of the PDP, called on the President to immediately apologise to Nigerians over what he called the hardship they suffered in the eight years regime of former President Muhammadu Buhari.

In a statement signed by Osadolor on Monday night, the PDP chieftain said, “Monday, May 29, 2023, came, Nigeria as a country was in gloom, notwithstanding the fact that power has been transferred.  Nigerians do not know if to cry, weep, heap a sigh of relief or be happy.

“True to type, the leader of the party that brought Nigerians and Nigeria to her knees did not disappoint in his first public speech as the pronounced President of the Federal Republic when he recklessly dismissed fuel subsidies without a framework. As we speak, queues are gathering in filling stations and many dealers have closed shops while trying to understand what Sen Tinubu’s statement means for their business.

“As if the eight grilling and nauseating years of the Buhari presidency is not enough; Tinubu on day one continued from where his predecessor stopped. It is an open secret that most Nigerians that survived the regime are asking for certificates of survival.”

While calling on the President to be mindful of his policies, Osadolor added that Nigerians are already at the limit of their endurance and would not take further knocks from the ruling party.

“Now that he has been made President, he should do well to re-write the image Nigerians have of him and his party the APC. He should start by apologising to the country for leading a party that presided over the misfortune that Nigeria became in the last 8 years and more recently, the circumstances that led to his declaration as president.

“This would be a good start, rather than making reckless statements that trigger panic and restlessness among the Nigerian people.

“The show of brute partisanship shown by his handlers who did not have the finesse or grace to be nice to Gov Chukwuma Soludo at the inauguration ceremony at Eagle Square earlier Monday must never be encouraged or tolerated.  Tinubu must publicly apologise and address this anomaly,” the statement further read.