Wike’s decision to lead the party’s campaign in the South-South followed the meeting members of the PDP’s presidential campaign council held with him at Government House in Port Harcourt, on Saturday.
Wike had threatened to abandon the party and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, alleging that he was being sidelined in some of the decisions taken by the party and its presidential candidate.
It was gathered that Wike said that as a stakeholder he was not consulted before the party constituted its presidential campaign council.
While other members of the presidential campaign council had been visible in the activities of the Bukola Saraki-led council, Wike had refused to take part.
However, sources at the meeting said that Atiku and others pleaded with Wike to join hands with them to make it easy for the PDP to defeat President Muhammadu Buhari and the All Progressives Congress in 2019.
One of the sources at the meeting said, “It was a tough but friendly meeting. The presidential candidate spoke like a father while Wike also listened and presented his areas of grievances.
“The governor threatened to abandon the campaign, but I think it was meant to get his attention and also register his displeasure over some of the actions he believed were taken without his knowledge. At the end of the day, he agreed to lead the campaign and also play prominent roles in order to enable us sack the APC and the President in 2019. All of us agreed that the APC is evil and the best way we can defeat it is to work together as a team. We will do that.”
READ: 2019: Secondus, Atiku, Saraki, blow hot, say APC in trouble
Apart from Atiku, other top party leaders at the Brick House in Port Harcourt are the PDP National Chairman, Uche Secondus, Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tambuwal; former governor of the state, Attahiru Bafarawa; and Delta State Governor, Ifeanyi Okowa.
Others, according to a Government House source, are Senate President and Director General of Atiku Campaign Organisation, Bukola Saraki; Speaker, House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara; Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu; Governor Dave Umahi of Ebonyi State and his counterpart from Cross River State, Ben Ayade.
One of our correspondents learnt that some of the PDP top members arrived in Port Harcourt on Friday, while Tambuwal and Bafarawa were seen with the governor at the Government House on Saturday. Some of the politicians earlier attended the burial of the mother of Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State.
You may like to read; What Wike said during Buhari’s visit to Rivers