Wike, Four Other Governors Absent As Atiku Commences Campaign

… Promises To Rescue Nigeria From Insecurity, Bad Economy

… Unite Northern, Southern Parts Of Country

The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, on Monday, commenced his presidential campaign in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, with a promise to rescue Nigeria from insecurity and bad economy, and to unite the northern and southern parts of the country.

This was as five PDP governors were absent at the commencement of the campaign, which held at the Nests of Champion International Stadium, Uyo, the state capital.

The governors that failed to turn up at the rally included those of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, Benue State, Samuel Ortom, Oyo State, Seyi Makinde, Abia State, Okezie Ikpaezu, and Enugu State, Ugwuanyi Ifeanyi.

This is as the crisis rocking the leadership of the PDP remains unresolved.

However, the reconciliation committee set up by the Board of Trustees of the Peoples Democratic Party to meet with aggrieved party members, especially Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State and his allies, may submit its report this week, metronusinessnews.com has learnt.

It was, however, gathered that the committee ruled out the possibility of removing the National Chairman of the party, Iyorchia Ayu, as demanded by Wike as a precursor to further negotiations.

It was further learnt that due to the timing, especially with the commencement of campaigns, the committee believed it would be counterproductive and damaging to the party if Ayu was forced out of office before the elections.

The committee believed the only way out was to pacify Wike to show understanding.

But, the panel, it was gathered, was able to establish that the party’s leadership mismanaged the crisis that erupted after the presidential primary.

The crisis stemmed from Wike’s dissatisfaction with the emergence of former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar as the presidential candidate and his choice of Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State as his running mate.

Independent of the previous committee set up by the party to meet with Wike to resolve the crisis, the then Chairman of the BoT, Walid Jibrin, early in August set up another committee whose members were drawn from the BoT to intervene in rifts in the party.

The Adolphus Wabara-led committee has concluded its reconciliation tours that took it to Ibadan, Makurdi, Umuahia, Enugu and Port Harcourt to meet with governors Seyi Makinde, Samuel Ortom, Okezie Ikpeazu, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi and Wike of Oyo, Benue, Abia, Enugu and Rivers states, respectively.

The committee, according to findings, would meet with the National Working Committee before presenting the report.
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“We listened to Wike and I must admit that he has good intentions for the party and our presidential candidate. When we met him, he explained his grievances to us and we almost agreed to everything he said. It is the fault of our leaders. They did not handle it well.

“But I think it is too late in the day to ask Ayu to go. It is practically not possible. We may have to listen to him and appeal to others like Wike to allow us to manage the situation now because we cannot afford to lose the elections,” a member of PDP told the platform on the condition of anonymity.