Despite having a political party plagued by crisis and discontent among members, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has decided to forge ahead with its affairs especially as it concerns next year’s general election.
The party will kick of its presidential campaigns in Uyo, Akwa-Ibom State today, today.
However, the party’s candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, may have decided to move on with or without the involvement and support of Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State and some of his allies.
An ally of the PDP candidate said that calls by the Wike team for the resignation of the party’s National Chairman, Senator Iyorchia Ayu has been rejected by “an overwhelming majority of the party.”
Both Atiku and Wike have been at loggerheads over Ayu’s removal as chairman of the party.
Also, some PDP bigwigs had pulled out of the Presidential Campaign Committee over Ayu’s refusal to step down as chairman.
Vanguard reports that the party’s candidate and his allies have decided to move on with the campaigns without Wike and his team.
The newspaper quoted an ally of the former Vice President to have said: “Let me tell you the honest truth. As far as the Wike matter is concerned there is an overwhelming sentiment that the campaign has moved on.
“So, if Wike or anyone in his camp shows the readiness of coming in, they will be accommodated but nobody is waiting for them again because they are not important enough to hurt the process. That is the honest, overwhelming impression.”
On the call for Ayu’s resignation and for the setting up of a caretaker committee for the party, the source said it was not feasible.
He said: “What they are talking about is not what anyone will count seriously. There cannot be a caretaker committee for the party and nobody will take that because it is illegal. If you follow what is happening in the APC, it is about the court saying whether their candidate is legal or illegal.
“The NWC of the party, as it is now, should be left alone because anything done now, may affect a lot of decisions that are critical. It is a gamble that nobody is ready to take; whether good or bad, it should be left the way it is.”
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