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From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja, Tony John, Port Harcourt and Chinelo Obogo
Allies of the Rivers State Governor, Nyesome Wike, shunned a meeting between the Peoples Democratic Party National Working Committee (NWC) and the 36 States gubernatorial candidates in Abuja, yesterday.
The meeting chaired by the National Chairman, Iyorchia Ayu, was summoned to enable him and members of the NWC interface with the party’s gubernatorial candidates.
Daily Sun investigations showed that the Rivers State governor’s supporters who did not attend the meeting included the Rivers State governorship candidate, Siminialayi Fubara, Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde who is said to be out of the country and Adamawa State Governor Ahmadu Fintiri.
Sources said the absence of Wike’s allies may not be unconnected with the ongoing faceoff between him and the party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar as well as the insistence by Wike’s loyalists that Ayu must resign for a southern candidate as a condition for reconciliation.
The Rivers Governor has been at daggers drawn with the party since the emergence of Delta State Governor, Ifeanyi Okowa, as vice presidential candidate.
The intervention by the party’s Board of Trustees (BoT) in the crisis recently resulted in Wike and Atiku setting up a peace committee to resolve all grey areas and report back to a larger committee. However, efforts to resolve the crisis is yet to yield amicable solution.
In an interview with journalists after the meeting, Ayu said he was impressed by the progress being made by the party across the country and expressed optimism that the party would win the 2023 general elections, both at the national and state levels.
“The candidates expressed their concerns in their various states. They briefed us on efforts they are making to win the election. As you know, the elections will be won in the states, not just at the national level.
“I am very happy with the progress that have made so far in their states, we have clarified some of the little issues, it was an extremely useful meeting. So, we are happy that members of the party are determined that we don’t just win at the national level but also at the state Assemblies, National Assembly, governorship, we want to return about 25 state governors or more as we used to have. So, the mood in the party is excellent.”
Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammed, said they believed in the supremacy and sanctity of the party.
Responding to a question on the meeting reportedly held between Wike and the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Mohammed said he was not aware of it.
“The candidates are coming together, uniting the party to discuss even issues of reconciliation . So, it is a very democratic party, he is open and we have ask him all the question that we need to ask about how to win the elections and then the strategies are ours, we don’t have to relate it to the media now, but certainly we are on course.”
On the ongoing crisis within the party, governorship candidate of Kaduna State, Isa Ashiru, told journalists: “We are here on a consultative meeting with our leaders on the way forward and we have extended discussions and views, regarding the 2023 elections and we are home and dry. We don’t have crisis in PDP. I don’t know where you got this information.”
Also present at the meeting were Ifeanyi Odii, Oborevwori Sheriff, Peter Mbah, Umo Eno, Ladidi Adebutu, PDP governorship candidates in Ebonyi, Delta, Enugu, Akwa Ibom and Ogun states respectively, among others.
•Atiku to meet Wike today
However, Atiku is reportedly headed to London in a last ditch effort to resolve his conflict with Wike.
According to The Cable, the former vice-president said Abubakar is billed to meet with the Rivers governor today.
“The PDP presidential candidate headed for London today after arriving Paris yesterday. He is billed to meet with Wike today in an attempt to resolve the issues between them,” the Cable source source said.
•‘No valuable PDP member would describe Wike as insignificant’
Meanwhile, Rivers State government has flayed former governor of Jigawa State, Sule Lamido over his comment on Governor Wike.
Lamido had on Tuesday criticised Wike saying he has no monopoly over voters in Rivers. He said Wike’s stance politically during the 2023 elections will not cost the party votes in Rivers, noting that the governor does not have a monopoly over the people.
Reacting, Wike’s spokesperson, Kelvin Ebiri, said in a statement that Lamido and his associates, played an “ignoble role” that caused the PDP’s defeat in 2015 and 2019 in Jigawa.
“It is rather appalling that at a time when concerted efforts are being made by lovers of true democracy and the unity of the party, to resolve some inherent contradictions plaguing the PDP, Alhaji Lamido and his cohorts, who have since lost their relevance in the polity, are busy creating friction and schism.
“Governor Wike has never claimed to be the custodian of the over 3 million votes in Rivers State. But as the leader of the PDP and good people of Rivers State, anyone who underrates the governor’s political pedigree or dares to ignore his influence in the State and beyond will be doing so at his own peril.
“We wish to remind Alhaji Lamido that governor Wike has never left anyone in doubt about his capacity to sway the voters in Rivers State in a direction that benefits the people and the State. In overall, when he speaks, Rivers people will listen, no doubt.
“Perhaps, Alhaji Lamido thinks Nigerians are suffering from selective amnesia to have forgotten in a hurry, the ignoble role he and his cohorts played between 2014 and 2015, that culminated in the defeat of the PDP in the 2015 general election.
“We hope that he is not up in such a scheme again to cause a repeat of that history. Otherwise, if Alhaji Lamido has any modicum of conscience, he won’t be making disparaging comments about governor Wike, whom many have described as the pillar of the PDP since 2015.
“We wish to state without equivocation that no well-meaning member of the PDP will describe governor Wike as ‘insignificant’ in the affairs of the PDP. With all modesty, only persons plagued by schizophrenia psychosis will ascribe any form of relevance to Alhaji Lamido, under whose leadership the PDP has woefully lost two governorship elections in Jigawa State in quick succession.
“Under Lamido’s watch, as a governor of Jigawa State in 2015, the APC governorship candidate, Mohammed Badaru Abubakar, scored a total 648,045 votes to defeat his PDP opponent, Malam Aminu Ringim, who scored a total 479, 447 votes. Worst still, in 2019, governor Abubakar polled 810,933, while the PDP candidate scored 288,356.
“Such records depict that Alhaji Lamido cannot and does not have such a political following that will benefit the PDP. Those who want electoral victory for the PDP are not dampening the morale required for a political offensive at APC, but Alhaji Lamido is cracking the wall of unity badly,” the statement read.
