Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has met with some former governors of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in a bid to install one of them as the new national chairman of the party. The meeting was held on Sunday at the residence of PDP chieftain, Chief Tom Ikimi, in Abuja.
The former governors who attended the meeting were Babangida Aliyu (Niger), Aminu Waziri Tambuwal (Sokoto) and Ibrahim Shekarau (Kano). They were joined by seven serving governors of the party, namely Ahmadu Fintiri (Adamawa), Bala Mohammed (Bauchi), Sheriff Oborevwori (Delta), Godwin Obaseki (Edo), Ademola Adeleke (Osun), Caleb Mutfwang (Plateau) and Lawal Dauda (Zamfara).
The meeting also had in attendance the suspended chairman of the party, Iyorchia Ayu and Atiku’s running mate in the 2023 presidential election, Ifeanyi Okowa, who is the immediate past governor of Delta State. The meeting lasted for over two hours behind closed doors.
A source close to the meeting told Daily Trust on Sunday that the agenda of the meeting was to strategize on how to make one of the ex-governors succeed Ayu, who was suspended by his ward in Benue State for alleged anti-party activities, non-payment of dues and other sundry offences. Ayu has been battling to regain his seat since then, but without success.
The source also revealed that the meeting was composed of mainly loyalists of Atiku, who was the PDP’s presidential candidate for the 2023 general elections. The source said none of the National Working Committee (NWC) members of the party was invited to the meeting.
“They want to put one of their own as the national chairman of the party. They don’t want a situation where someone like the former Rivers State governor, Nyesom Wike and his loyalists will take over the party.
“He (Wike) wants to be a minister and also controls the PDP, if that happens, the party is finished,” the source said.
Efforts to get the reaction of the national publicity secretary of the party, Debo Ologunagba, were not successful as he neither answered phone calls nor replied a WhatsApp message sent to him by our reporter.
It would be recalled that in March this year, the executive committee of Igyorov ward in Benue State suspended Ayu as a member of the party for alleged anti-party activities. Following a suit instituted by a member of the party in Benue, Terhide Utaan, Justice W. I Kpochi of the Benue State High Court had in March issued an interim injunction restraining Ayu from parading himself as the national chairman of the party.
Before the February 25 presidential election, some governors led by Wike had asked Ayu to resign his position as national chairman following Atiku’s emergence as the PDP’s presidential candidate. The party later appointed its deputy national chairman (North), Umar Damagun, as its acting chairman. The governors had argued that the North could not produce both the party’s national chairman and presidential candidate.
The meeting of the former governors and serving PDP governors is a sign of the growing power struggle within the party. It remains to be seen who will emerge as the next national chairman of the PDP, but it is clear that the party is in a state of flux.
