The last has not been heard about the internal wrangling within the opposition Peoples Democratic Party.
If comments and actions of leading figures in the party are anything to go by, the crisis of confidence over the outcome of the party’s presidential primary and the selection of the party’s running mate has not abated.
Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State in an interview with Arise Television, revealed that all is not well within the party.
This became evident when only one of the party’s 12 governors, who are members of the 128-man Osun Governorship Campaign Council, attended its inauguration at the party’s National Secretariat, yesterday.
This happened as the party dismissed as balderdash reports that National Chairman of the party, Senator Iyorchia Ayu, had been sacked.
Ortom had in the televised interview, expressed disappointment that the party leadership was yet to address the concerns of members.
He cited an example with the decision of the party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, to ignore the choice of Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State as running mate.
He said: “I was among the 17-member committee set up by Atiku and 14 of us in the committee said the person should be Wike.
Unfortunately, Atiku picked Okowa in his wisdom.
“You cannot ignore the decision of a committee you set up yourself and expect people to be happy. For now, I have gone into hibernation.”
Asked if he would support the PDP candidate in the 2023 elections, he said: “I am in hibernation. I am praying. When I finish the prayers, whatever God directs me to do, I will do. We expect Atiku to do more but we are not seeing that.”
In response to a question on claims that Wike was avoiding people from Atiku’s camp, who had made many attempts to reach him, Ortom said: “They should stop that. Atiku should go to him; why won’t he ignore their calls? Is that not an insult? Wike is a pillar in the party; currently, nobody in the party has contributed more for the party to move forward than Wike.
“If Atiku was not going to honour the decision of the committee, he should have called Wike earlier and informed him. He didn’t do that; you can’t do things anyhow and expect us to be happy.”
(Vanguard)