The five aggrieved Peoples Democratic Party governors’ loyalists and the camp of the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, on Monday, quarrelled over moves by the governors to endorse their preferred presidential candidate in January.
The governors had vowed not to campaign for Atiku, hinting that they would reveal the presidential candidate they would support, few weeks to the February 25 presidential poll but the Atiku Campaign Council warned that dumping the PDP standard bearer would mark the end of their political careers.
Governors Nyesom Wike (Rivers), Seyi Makinde (Oyo), Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia), Samuel Ortom (Benue) and Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu states and some political heavyweights from the South are at loggerheads with Atiku following the refusal of the PDP National Chairman, Iyorchia Ayu to resign on account of the lopsided leadership of the party.
Though Atiku and the governors held several meetings in Nigeria and London, United Kingdom, Ayu’s refusal to vacate office as demanded by the governors had frustrated the reconciliation moves.
Wike had consistently maintained that in several meetings with Atiku after the party convention, the latter promised to prevail on Ayu to quit; a claim that had been denied by Atiku and his spokespersons.
The governors, who subsequently pulled out of Atiku’s campaign council, have inaugurated their state campaign councils without a word of support for Atiku.
Barring any twist, reporters gathered that the governors would in the days ahead begin campaigns against the PDP presidential candidate in their respective states.
was gathered that issues of trust and loyalty to the party would feature prominently in their campaign against Atiku.
Last week, Wike, the arrowhead of the move against Atiku, told the Rivers State chapter of the PDP to await his January directive on the presidential candidate to vote; a remark that elicited a sharp rebuke from his once trusted ally and immediate past National Chairman of the party, Prince Uche Secondus.