A mass exodus is looming in the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) following the outcome of its presidential primaries and process leading to the emergence of the Delta State Governor, Ifeanyi Okowa, as the vice presidential candidate of the party for the 2023 elections.
Supporters of Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike, who came second in the primaries behind the eventual winner Atiku Abubakar, are aggrieved and threatening to leave the party en masse.
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Daily Trust reliably gathered that the supporters are also planning to meet today to decide their next line of action.
Ahead of the meeting, two chieftains of the party and allies of Governor Wike have already left the party. They are the former minister of Niger Delta, Godsday Orubebe and a former commissioner in Edo State, Kassim Afegbua.
Orubebe, in a letter addressed to the National Chairman of the PDP, Dr lyorchia Ayu, a copy of which was seen by Daily Trust, said “the present situation in the party does not inspire confidence that the party is ready to regain power in 2023.”
The former minister lamented the emergence of a northerner, Atiku Abubakar, as the party’s presidential candidate, against the zoning arrangement of the party even though Dr. Iyorchia Ayu, also a northerner, is the national chairman of the party.
On his part, in a letter to the chairman of Ward 5, PDP, Awuyemi-Okpella, Afegbua said he was leaving the PDP because it was the turn of the southern part of Nigeria to produce the next president in line with the provisions of Article 7 of the party’s constitution.
He said since “the party has jettisoned the provision and manipulated the convention by eliminating zoning, my aspiration as a member is impaired.”
“For the above reasons only, I align myself with the considered standpoint of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Northern Governors who spoke so eloquently about the need to allow power to rotate to the South, in the true spirit of fairness, equity and justice,” Orubebe said.
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