Atiku may move against Wike’s PDP candidates
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Atiku Abubakar may pull the plug on Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) election candidates sponsored by Rivers Governor Nyesom Wike and his loyalists if they fail to back down from demanding the resignation of National Chairman Iyorchia Ayu.
Former PDP spokesman Olisa Metuh said Atiku loyalists are piling pressure on him to filibuster such candidates, sequel to the withdrawal of the Wike camp from his Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) on Wednesday.
Vanguard quoted sources as saying Oyo Governor Seyi Makinde is particularly at risk of not being able to win election for his second term.
It was learnt Governors Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia) and Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Enugu) may have stepped back from their closeness to Wike because of the groundswell of support in the South East for Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate Peter Obi.
Ikpeazu is PDP Abia South Senatorial District candidate and is said to be more at risk with the surging popularity of Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe on the ticket of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).
Metuh, the longest serving member of PDP National Executive Council (NEC) and National Working Committee (NWC), spoke against the background of threats the Wike camp is issuing against Atiku.
“If you are actually working for Atiku to win the presidency you cannot be insisting on a Chairman because the President when he is elected can always change a chairman whether he is acting or elected, he has enough influence to change him,” he said.
“But if you are actively working for him to fail, you are wishing him not to win or you don’t believe that he will win, then we can understand why you are fighting for the issue.”
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Metuh tells Wike camp to follow due process
“If you want the Chairman not to continue, then engineer the party to ask him, engineer the National Executive Committee, engineer the National Caucus, engineer the leadership of the party to ask him, then he will resign.
“But when you are outside and issue press statements it is not the party that is talking, it is an individual or group of friends that are talking,” Metuh added, according to reporting by Vanguard.
“Now supposing the candidate of the party buckles to pressure to give directive against some people running in the election aligned to those who say they are withdrawing from his campaign council and ask his people to withdraw from their own campaigns, won’t it be chaos?
“I am aware that there is a lot of pressure asking him to issue the same statement against those people but he has not. That is where we admire the patience, tolerance, the accommodating qualities of Atiku.
“Any other person would have taken a hard stance. He has not used any foul language. He has not taken any hard stance. He has been accommodating. They pushed him to London, he went to London. They will tell him this, he will say, anything they say ….
“People will come to him, let us fight these men, he will say no. It is obvious that Nigeria needs such a father figure, a tolerant person.
“In the midst of insults, in the midst of provocations, indeed undue provocations because things that can be discussed inside the house are being thrown about and being marketed.”
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