…Wike storms off to Spain
Reliable sources say there is a further splinter in the ranks of a group of five dissenting governors of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) over the choice of presidential candidate to back in the coming (February 2023) general elections.
The dissenting PDP governors comprise of governors Nysom Wike of Rivers State, Samuel Ortom of Benue State, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State, Seyi Makinde of Oyo State and Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State. The group is otherwise known as the G5 governors.
The G5 governors is said to have met in London recently to make a choice of presidential candidate to support in the upcoming election, away from Atiku Abubakar, who has been endorsed and registered by the PDP as its presidential candidate.
The G5 was said to have been unable to reach agreement on the matter, as they made different choices regarding presidential candidates to support and would not yield ground. This is said to have led to Nyesom Wike, the most strident of the group, walking out on the meeting in anger and frustration.
Wike is reported to have then boarded a plane and headed for Spain.
Politics watchers say this conflict of opinions by the G5 may have been spurred by a threat by the main body of the PDP to expel the dissenters from the party should they back a candidate other than Atiku Abubakar, the party’s choice.
Such an expulsion would render members of the group devoid of a party canopy under which to operate and scuttle their personal political ambitions.
Some members of the group have their eyes on Senatorial seats, while Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, aspires to a second and final term in that office.
Their political ambitions, it is said, would then lose legitimacy as the country’ electoral rules make no room for independent candidates.
