“I will not allow anybody to crumble our political structure. I told him if you do this ring-road your second tenure would be assured, I took him to Germany to meet Julius Berger and they promised to do the road in three years, which is the year leading to election. I told him if you do this road, nobody will challenge you in Rivers State.

“Anything that will make me disrespect Mr President, count me out. He disobeyed the President, disobeyed the Vice President. When the law speaks, thuggery, militancy and ethnicity will run away.”

Wike also outlined some of his achievements as governor of Rivers State, saying he was paying pensioners’ gratuity every month, something he said was not done by his predecessor.

“I took River State to the level where you cannot discuss politics in Nigeria without Rivers State. I was an ordinary minister when I became a governor. I challenged the sitting governor and I defeated his candidate. I worked hard,” he said.

Meanwhile, the minister said existing landowners with Certificate of Occupancy (C of O) in the FCT must re-certify them to incorporate the new features.

Wike said this would cost individuals N50,000 each and corporate bodies, N100,000 each.

Still speaking on a live television programme in Abuja, the minister noted that the new C-of-O would now require a National Identification Number (NIN) and Bank Verification Number (BVN)

He said he had been refraining from signing C-of-Os during his tenure as the FCT minister to introduce enhanced security measures, such as the inclusion of NIN for individuals and BVN for corporate bodies.

“There are a lot of discrepancies, a lot of cloning of C-of-Os. So, we have come up with an idea that every allottee who seeks and applies for a C-of-O must supply his NIN; this is one of the features we are going to put in the new C-of-O.

“If a corporate body doesn’t have an NIN and they have a property, they must put their BVN. So many persons have not registered, and this will make them go and re-register,” Wike stated.

On the existing landlords with C-of-Os, he noted that they would only be required to pay a nominal fee for recertification.

“For everyone who has a C-of-O, they will come for a recertification, so that we can incorporate the NIN or BVN. Those who had a C-of-O before do not need to pay money again; the highest they can pay is N50,000, and corporate bodies will pay N100,000. It helps in terms of security; it also helps to improve our revenue generation,” he said.