PDP crisis temporarily over, Wike declares
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By Omeiza Ajayi
The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Nyesom Wike, has declared that the crisis rocking the Peoples Democratic Party PDP, is “temporarily over,” following the exit of those he called “buccaneers and vampires”.
Noting that his firm resistance against impunity led to the shedding of PDP’s excess baggage, the minister, however, insisted that the outcome of the recent South South Zonal Congress of the party, which produced Chief Dan Orbih as its National Vice Chairman, must be accepted in order to stave off another round of crisis.
Wike, who handed down the condition during a live media chat monitored in Abuja on Monday, also threw a direct jab at former Vice President Atiku Abubakar.
According to him, the PDP’s 2023 presidential candidate is so obsessed with serially getting the presidential ticket of any party he belongs to, saying he left the PDP because he knew he was not going to get the party’s 2027 Presidential ticket.
Noting that Atiku is doing everything to secure the ticket of the African Democratic Congress, ADC, Wike said that anytime the former vice president is unable to secure a presidential ticket, he jumps to another party, detailing his history of serial defections aimed at obtaining presidential tickets.
He said, “I said I was going to remain in the PDP and that was why I said the right thing must be done. I will not leave this party which I have done everything for, for the buccaneers and vampires. If I had not. If I had left the party, the buccaneers and vampires would have remained in PDP to come and collect the ticket”.
Asked whether the crisis was over, the minister said, “Well, it is over for now because there are still some things remaining which I have told them they must do. One is our South-South Zonal Congress, which we must uphold. There is no two ways about it. During our South-South Zonal Congress, the acting National Chairman claimed that the PDP governors were not in support of that zonal Congress. Where are the PDP governors today?.
“Our Congress was held in Calabar and there is nothing anybody can tell us. If they want another round of crisis, so be it. That Congress must be. Chief Dan Orbih emerged as National Vice Chairman. The courts allowed for the Congress to hold. Congress was held and the so-called acting National Chairman of the party went and wrote to INEC data after the Congress had held, saying Congress had been postponed.
Something was held on the 5th and then on the 8th, you said it has been postponed. So, there are no two ways about it. The National Vice Chairman of the PDP South South is Chief Dan Orbih. If they don’t agree, that is another round do crisis”.
The minister added that the South East Congress, which also produced Ali Odefa, cannot stand because the courts had affirmed that he was no longer a member of the party.
He said his team will not allow any reign of impunity in the PDP, urging the leadership to resolve the issues before the November national convention, else there will be a crisis.
Speaking about the Atiku-led coalition, Wike said, “These are people who, in all their political nature, and we know from the campaigns, are going from one party to the other. So, every political period, you form a coalition. Here we see some people who have joined ADC. It is okay. This is not the first time they have joined new parties. Take, for example, it is in their bloodstream that this is what they are going to do. You can’t change it. I think he (Atiku) was in the PDP in 1999. Then he joined AC. The AC/ACN was controlled by whom? By the incumbent president now. Now, what happened to him? Later, he came back to the PDP. Then what happened? He moved again to APC. From APC, he returned to the PDP, only to secure presidential tickets every time. Then, from the PDP now, he has gone away again. ADC.
“People join one party they call ADC. Let me tell you why they have to do that. It is difficult now for them to have it in PDP. All this has to do with presidential ambition. ‘Can I get my ticket? The way PDP is now, it is not likely that I will get a ticket’. Therefore, it is not comfortable. Then he goes to tell you, ‘let us come, let us do a coalition against the people’. It is not correct. It is because he cannot get the presidential ticket under PDP”.
Wike also revealed how he led some PDP stakeholders to reject a recommendation that former Senate President David Mark, now the National Chairman of ADC, be made the National Chairman of the PDP.
“When we started having this issue of the national chairman in North Central, there was pressure that David Mark should be the national chairman. We refused. Why? Why would we not refuse? What change will it bring to the party? If he were Senate President for eight years, what were the things that happened? What is the improvement? I have told you here. I prefer somebody who has not had any position who has come to tell me, ‘Look, I am doing this because this government, I want to help for a change to achieve this and that.
“I will not listen to anybody who has been in power for donkey of years, who has refused to contribute anything to the development of the country. And now you come to tell me this story that ‘look, we need to rescue this country’. You were there. The country was sinking. You didn’t rescue”, he stated.
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