By Abraham Olatunbosun
Barely two hours after the unveiling of Delta State Governor, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, as running mate of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar in next year’s Presidential Election, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has run into stormy weather; heading for another major political crisis, metrowatchxtra.com has learnt.
The stormy weather was sparked by PDP National Chairman’s refusal to respect the position of the party’s major stakeholders regarding their recommended Vice-presidential candidate, Chief Nyesom Wike, metrowatchxtra.com was also told.
This newspaper gathered from a major stakeholder that unless urgent steps were taken to stave off the impending crisis, the Party might face a constitutional crisis and therefore may lose the next election.
He said: “Today’s event was scheduled for 12 Noon. But it was delayed to wait for prominent members of the leadership.
“The National Secretary, Deputy Chairman, South-south, NWC members refused to show up at the ceremony even though they were at the Wadata Plaza.
“The PDP governors, apart from Okowa, bluntly refused to grace the occasion. The Bauchi Governor Bala Mohammed came in late and did not know that what was going on was not th unveiling of the recommended candidate.
“Prominent members of the BoT abstained.
“The NWC members are insisting that the Party’s choice for the office of VP must be honoured and moreso as the choice had been communicated to the recommended candidate.
“They emphasised that there is nowhere in the Party’s constitution and the Electoral Act that the National Chairman and the Presidential Candidate have the power to decide for the Party who the Vice-presidential candidate should be.
“Leaders of the Party are calling for an urgent step to redress the situation, otherwise the Party will go into a Major Crisis that will rob it of victory in the forthcoming election.”
The leaders, the source added are unanimous that ” Every action Ayubhas taken since he came in as National Chairman has been moving towards the direction of destroying the party.”
“There is nowhere in the Electoral Act that the party chairman and the presidential candidate should sit down and pick a running mate against the recommendation of the party,” he added.
For the purpose of emphasis, the source explained that: “They – governors, majority of the BoT members and majority of other stakeholders including NWC members – had come around based on the recommendation of the Party’s various committees that had recommended Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, as the choice of PDP for VP.
“This position had also been communicated to the candidate, Wike and other stakeholders.
“Having passed through the rout, the National Chairman, Dr Iyorchia Ayu and the Presidential Candidate decided on their own to drop the party’s position and took another decision.
“As it is, majority of the leaders are calling for Ayu’s resignation because all his actions since he came in as the party’s chairman have been to destroy it.”
