The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has said it is focused on ensuring that the party wins the presidential election and not on the activities of some group of five governors within its party who have endorsed other presidential candidates.
The party however declined to reveal what disciplinary actions it will take following the open endorsement given by some of the G-5 governors to other presidential candidates besides PDP’s Atiku Abubakar.
Recall that the G-5 governors comprising Nyesom Wike of Rivers State, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Enugu), Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia), Samuel Ortom (Benue), and Seyi Makinde (Oyo) pulled out of the PDP Presidential Campaign Council last year, insisting that except the PDP national chairman, Dr Iyorchia Ayu, must quits his position, and allow a southern take over for power balancing.
While Ayu refused to resign, the PDP candidate, Atiku Abubakar has repeatedly declined pressure from the governors to lean on the national chairman to resign.
After a series of failed peace moves, the governors have since pitched their tents with their preferred presidential candidates.
While Ortom has since endorsed Labour Party’s Peter Obi, Wike has allegedly asked his loyalists to back APC presidential candidate Bola Tinubu.
Ikpeazu and Ugwuanyi are yet to openly align with either Atiku or Obi, while Makinde is leaning towards Tinubu.
The situation in Rivers State has since deteriorated resulting in Atiku shelving his campaign rally in the state after PDP leaders were attacked in the state.
However, there are indications that party national leadership might take a hard decision against the governors for embarking on anti-party activities. This follows the open confrontation by Atiku’s spokespersons against Wike.
A party source said the party leadership was mindful of not being distracted by the antics of the governors considering that they have a task of winning the elections.
When asked about the party’s next move, the national publicity secretary Hon Debo Ologunagba said, “Our next action is to focus on the election. The issues before us are very important. We are focusing on what is important to us as a party. These are issues of serious concern for us and Nigerians, issues of insecurity, poverty and human development. As we speak we have about 100m Nigerians living in poverty.
“So as a party we are focused on the election because we want to rescue Nigeria from the misrule of the APC and we are following through with that,” he said.
