Atiku breaks silence on PDP crisis, says he respects all stakeholders

Presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has said the party remains united and that he is making efforts to reach to aggrieved members.

The former vice president who took to his twitter account on Thursday to speak amid escalating crisis over his unilateral decision to pick Ifeanyi Okowa, Delta State governor as his running mate, noted that he respects all the governors and other stakeholders of the party.

He said, “The @OfficialPDPNig will remain united. Focus on our actions. We are taking action to address the feelings of all party members. The unity in our community is my priority. Our resolve to unify Nigeria starts in our party and moves to the community, then on to society.

“Every Governor, Legislator, and other elected officials produced by our party, and party members and loyalists, are much loved and respected by me.

“When they speak, I listen. I do not only listen. Appropriate actions have been taken, are being taken, and will continue to be advanced.”

Crisis is currently brewing in the PDP over the ex-vice president’s choice of running mate, with many of the party’s governors said to have decided not to back his presidential ambition.

Speaking on Arise TV on Wednesday, Samuel Ortom, governor of Benue State, narrated how the governors recommended Nyesom Wike as Atiku’s running mate only for him to discard the recommendation without consulting them.

Similarly, Ayodele Fayose, former governor of Ekiti State on Wednesday, noted that Wike will not back the former vice president, even as he declared that he would back power shift to south in 2023.

In a tweet on Wednesday, Fayose announced that power should return to the South in 2023, as according to him, President Muhammadu Buhari would be completing eight years in 2023, and therefore, it’s only logical for power to return to the South.

Further emphasising on the point he made in the tweet, the former Ekiti governor who received Mr. Biodun Oyebanji, the state’s governor-elect in his Lagos residence on Wednesday, told Premium Times that Wike would never support the Atiku candidacy, and that they would help rock the PDP boat going into 2023.

He recounted how Atiku “promised” to make Mr Wike, the Rivers State governor, his running mate after he was declared winner of the PDP presidential primary election.

According to him, Atiku failed to fulfil his promise to Mr Wike when he settled for the Delta State governor, Ifeanyi Okowa, as his running mate.

“Wike never said he wanted to be VP, but when Atiku visited him, he was the one who said, ‘I want you to be my VP’. He said that to Wike. If that then changes, is Wike not supposed to be told? Is he not supposed to know?”

He recalled that Atiku had ignored the recommendation of a committee set up by the opposition party to pick his running mate.

“PDP set up a committee to recommend a running mate for the candidate and the committee voted and picked Wike, but they didn’t comply with the recommendation of the committee.”

“If the party is now a one-man show, we will show them that we can resist it. We are with Wike 100 per cent.

“When they need Wike’s money and Wike’s support, they will say, ‘Wike is good enough’. Wike has been injured, but we will remain with him. Whatever he does is what we would do; wherever he asks us to go is where we will go.”

When asked what would happen should Mr Wike ask them to support Mr Atiku, the former governor said: “Wike will never say we should support Atiku.

“Wike cannot come out to say he is supporting Atiku. I dare him to say so; because he knows that whatever he says will haunt him forever. If Wike supports Atiku, we will abandon him.”