PDP Turmoil: Wike, Four Other Governors Jet To Spain For Another Meeting
Other members of the group are; Samuel Ortom of Benue, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, Enugu; Seyi Makinde, Oyo and Okezie Ikpeazu, Abia.
The PDP has been in turmoil since it held its presidential primary election in May.
SaharaReporters earlier in the week reported that the governors boycotted the Peoples Democratic Party’s official flag-off of its presidential campaign in Akwa-Ibom on Monday.
Their absence might be related to their insistence that the PDP’s National Chairman, Iyorchia Ayu, should step down.
Insisting that it does not represent the party’s national character, the Wike camp had maintained that it was unethical for the PDP to have a northerner as presidential candidate and national Chairman.
They also alleged that Ayu promised to resign after the PDP presidential primaries if a northerner emerged as candidate.
Ayu however vowed to stay on as the party’s national chairman and Atiku’s spokespersons hinted that the presidential candidate had no intention – or power- to force Ayu’s removal.
In September, SaharaReporters had reported that Wike’s camp pulled out of the campaign council of the party’s presidential candidate.
According to them, Ayu must resign to allow for an acting National Chairman of Southern Nigeria extraction to emerge and lead the party’s National Campaign Council for Atiku in the 2023 general elections.
This came in spite of the vote of confidence passed on the Ayu-led National Working Committee by the recent meeting of the National Executive Committee of the party.
However, despite their absence, the PDP campaign flag-off took place at the Nest of Champions Stadium in Uyo on Momday.
The crisis in the party escalated after Atiku chose Ifeanyi Okowa, governor of Delta, as his running mate.
Wike was said to have been preferred by a majority of the PDP’s national working committee (NWC) members as the candidate for the position.
The governor has however called for the resignation of the party’s National Chairman, Iyorchia Ayu over the alleged roles he played in the emergence of Atiku Abubakar as the PDP presidential flag bearer.
