PDP crisis deepens as Wike reportedly refuses to meet Atiku's emissaries

The crisis in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) continues to degenerate as Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State is reportedly not willing to meet with the committee set up to resolve the crisis.

Since the presidential candidate of the party, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar picked Delta State Governor, Ifeanyi Okowa as his running mate last month, the PDP has been a divided house.

Atiku was said to have rejected Wike as his running mate, despite his recommendation by a 17-man committee set up by the party.

Following Okowa’s emergence as the PDP Vice Presidential candidate, some Wike loyalists dumped the party.

And in a bid to pacify Wike and his followers, the opposition party recently set up a nine-member committee to resolve the lingering crisis, but the Rivers state governor is reportedly not willing to meet the committee.

Also, his continuous silence over the crisis unsettles the party as nobody in the party knows his next move.

Abia State Governor, Okezie Ikpeazu, Seyi Makinde of Oyo, Samuel Ortom of Benue and former Ekiti State governor, Ayodele Fayose are believed to be Wike allies.

Some of the party leaders like Fayose and Ortom had recently expressed their displeasure over the emergence of Atiku and Okowa as the party’s flag bearers for the 2023 presidential elections.

Criticising the party on Twitter, Fayose recently opposed the PDP, insisting that power must return to the South in 2023.

Also, Governor Ortom during his interview on Arise TV said he had not made up his mind to support Atiku. He also called out the PDP for allegedly betraying Wike.

It would be recalled that in 2021, Southern Governors reached an agreement that power just shift to their region in 2023.

The governors vowed to oppose any political party that presents a northerner as its presidential candidate.

Despite the clamour for power to return to the south, the PDP decided to throw its presidential ticket open to aspirants from all regions, and Atiku, a northerner emerged as the party’s presidential candidate.

Wike came second in the primary election that produced Atiku as the PDP flagbearer.

Speaking on the crisis, a PDP chieftain in Rivers State told Daily Trust that Atiku would be paid back in his own coin, adding that the people of the state won’t support him in the forthcoming election.

“As far as I’m concerned, there is no way we in Rivers State will support Atiku. He disappointed us and we will not support him. You cannot toy with our leader and go free. We will take a decisive decision on this matter and it will be far-reaching,” the chieftain who spoke anonymously said.

Another source said Atiku has sent some people to appeal to Wike not to leave the PDP, but the governor is currently weighing all the options available to him.