According to PUNCH report, the PDP’s National Working Committee views the next presidential election as a monumental challenge and has chosen to address the alleged anti-party activities of the Governor Nyesom Wike-led Integrity Group after the vote.
Wike of Rivers State, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu, Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia, Samuel Ortom of Benue, and Seyi Makinde of Oyo withdrew from the PDP Presidential Campaign Council last year. They reportedly said they wouldn’t participate in the campaigns unless Iyorchia Ayu, the party’s national chairman, resigned.
The governors have subsequently pitched their tents with their respective presidential candidates in response to Ayu’s reluctance to go ahead Atiku Abubakar, the PDP candidate apparent lack of interest in the former Senate President’s dismissal.
Ikpeazu and Ugwuanyi are apparently torn between Atiku and Obi, while Makinde and Wike were alleged to be working for Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress. However, Ortom has openly endorsed Peter Obi of the Labour Party.
Results, however, showed that Ayu will use the big stick to enforce the party’s dominance in accordance with the PDP constitution following the election.
Former governor of a state in the North-West and current member of the PDP National Executive Committee made this assertion in confidence that the behavior of the displeased governors infuriated party stakeholders on all fronts and warned that failure to call them to order would prompt many questions from party faithful.
“We saw every day as these leaders mocked the party,” the NEC member stated. No one denied having a grievance, but we all agreed that there were better methods to express ourselves than the way they did.
“When the elders (Board of Trustees) intervened, we all thought the crisis was over, but it only got worse. We expect some sanctions, although the leadership of the party will set in motion what to do with them.
“At the NEC, it was nothing short of a disgrace to wake up to see governors dancing not in solidarity with their party, but with rival parties to cast aspersions on the same PDP that catapulted them to national prominence.
“It’s a good thing that Ayu is focused on the elections, but we would like to see what happens after that.”
Ibrahim Abdullahi, the PDP’s Deputy National Publicity Secretary, refused to confirm or deny the fate of the Integrity Group, by saying “we will wait until it is confirmed” what the party intends to do.
The biggest indication of what lies ahead for the Wike-led group came from the Deputy National Youth Leader of the party, Timothy Osadolor, who told The PUNCH that sanction for the aggrieved governors “is not a question of if but when.”
Osadolor stated, “How else could they have worked against the party than they have already? If they didn’t know that there would be sanctions, they wouldn’t be running to their states’ High Courts to procure ex-parte orders, but they are merely buying time.
“They know that they have erred, and the full wrath of the law will fall upon them. It’s not a matter of if, but of when.”
Osadolor added, “When the dust of elections is over, the party will revisit the issue. The party is supreme. Head or tail, their issue will be treated.”
Ref: Punch
