There are more troubles for former Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike and members of the former G-5 Governors of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, as the party’s disciplinary panel submits its report on alleged anti-party activities against the group.
It was gathered that the reconciliation and disciplinary panel set up by the PDP to sanitize the party had submitted its report, and Wike and his cohorts in the G-5 would now be summoned to defend themselves against the allegations.
The panel’s Chair, Chief Tom Ikimi, had earlier vowed that Wike would be summoned over allegations bordering on anti-party activities during the 2023 presidential election, which featured Atiku Abubakar as the party’s candidate.
PDP Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Ibrahim Abdullahi, has now confirmed that not only Wike but all those involved in anti-party activities would be summoned by the panel.
“Yes, if Wike will be summoned, I do not know why others will be exempted. If Wike who is still holding a federal appointment and is even the leader of the ring will be called upon, then it suffices to say that (summoning) those (other G-5 members) are automatic.”
“One of the committees is to reconcile and the other is to discipline where you find defaulters. None of them has sat; what I said previously was that the committees had commenced work. They are doing a letter to Wike and several others that have been petitioned so that they can come and explain their roles as alleged in the elections, pre and post,” Abdullahi explained.
Wike is accused of leading the defunct G-5 Governors of the PDP, which included Seyi Makinde, Samuel Ortom, Ifeanyi Ugwanyi and Okezie Ikpeazu of Oyo, Benue, Enugu and Abia respectively, to work against Atiku over disagrement with the party’s structure.
The G-5 had insisted that the party’s ticket should be ceded to only aspirants from the Southern parts of the country, in line with the unwritten rule of power rotation between the North and South, with then President Muhammadu Buhari running out his constitutionally allowed two tenures of eights.
But the party leadership, under then chairman, Iorcha Ayu, threw the contest open, paving the way for the emergence of Atiku, a former Vice President, who had contested every presidential election since 1999.
After the party’s primary, the G-5 called on Ayu to step down, since like the presidential candidate, he hails from the North, but the latter refused and led the party to a hattrick of presidential defeat.
Wike was appointed by the ruling APC as Minister for the Federal Capital Territory, much to the angst of his party, who view it as his reward for working for their opponent, who won his Rivers state and two other G-5 states.
