Bye-Bye Atiku: Wike, Allied PDP Governors, Weigh Options On Tinubu, Obi

The five governors aligned with Governor Nyesom Wike in the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP are weighing their options between Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and Mr Peter Obi on whom to back for the presidential election.

GWG.NG reports that the PDP hierarchy including the presidential candidate of the party, Atiku Abubakar are resigned to the fact that the five governors would not be backing the party’s candidate in the presidential election. Atiku is, however, pushing forward to go beyond the governors in the five states to have his way.

Some of the governors, including Wike who has the highest bag of votes are, however, not sitting back.

Wike on Friday doubled the number of his special assistants to monitor the political units to 200,000, giving him a substantial presence of ground troops in the war ahead. The special assistants according to Wike are to guide him and the state on how they would vote for the presidential election.

GWG.NG reports that there are suspicions that Wike had for a long time appeared to have made a deal with Tinubu, but indications are that it would be difficult for him to pull off the deal in Rivers given the Muslim-Muslim slant of the APC ticket and the immense popularity of Obi in the state.

However, Seyi Makinde of Oyo appears to have already made his option in Tinubu given his presence by proxy at the residence of Pa Fasroranti last Tuesday when the Afenifere leader endorsed Tinubu.

The other governors in the Wike group, notably, Governors Sam Ortom, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi and Okeize Ikpeazu of Benue, Enugu and Abia States in weighing their options may reluctantly go with Obi despite their hearts being with Tinubu.

GWG.NG reports that a family relation of Governor Ugwuanyi, Chijoke Edeoga who served him as commissioner is the Labour Party governorship candidate for Enugu State. Edeoga has been fighting off claims that he is Ugwuanyi’s mole in Labour Party.

The sentiments for Obi in the Southeast is also said to by hamstringing any deal between Tinubu and Ugwuanyi just as Wike is also finding out in Rivers State. The same scenario is also playing out in Abia for Ikpeazu.

However, Ortom may not have any such encumbrance as he has recently weighed in to say that Obi is the best presidential candidate of the lot but diplomatically pulled back for a full endorsement on the claim that he belongs to the PDP.

“If Nigeria needs to make a choice, you are one of the finest candidates that we have in this country. In terms of education, in terms of character, in terms of performance, in terms of reaching out, in terms of being a pan-Nigerian, in terms of industrialisation, passion to ensure that our country is liberated from where we are; out of insecurity to security, and out of economic woes to economic vibrancy and out of lack to adequate social life, you have the capacity to make things work,” Ortom told Obi earlier in the week when the Labour Party candidate visited Makurdi.

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