The G-5 Governors of the Peoples Democratic Party have met in Lagos with the former Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Chief Olabode George.
The meeting by the Governors with Chief Bode George one of the first set of elected leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party after the 1998/1999 elections which ushered in the current Democratic dispensation is according to sources to decided on where the governors will throw their support.
The governors had through the governor of Rivers State, Governor Nyesom Wike, disclosed on Saturday that they will not be supporting the Presidential Candidate of the Party, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar who they have had a running battle with since his emergence.
Their grouse with him was over the manner of his emergence and what some of the governors have said are broken promises and lack of integrity especially on the part of the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Dr Iyorchia Ayu.
Dr Ayu had promised to resign his position as the party’s National Chairman if a Northerner emerges as the Party’s Presidential candidate a promise he has so far refused to keep.
TVC News’s Ayodele Ozugbakun who covered the meeting reports that the meeting was attended by Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State, Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, Governor Ifeanyi of Enugu State and Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State with Governor Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State absent.
Other former Governors of the Peoples Democratic Party from Plateau State, Jonah Jang, Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose, Ondo Olusegun Mimiko and Cross River, Donald Duke and some Other leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party in attendance.
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We are somewhere around the Lagos island now. Right now this place is called Southern Sun Hotel and this governors who call their group the integrity Group led by the G-5 governors, they’ve been locked in a kind of meeting here for the last two and a half hours.
We got here early, we first of all went Chief Olabode George’s office at Lugard. And we saw a lot of members of the People’s Democratic Party from across the country. And the governors actually proceeded here and when I’m talking about the governors led by Nyesom Wike and one of the other governors is the governor of Benue State, Governor Samuel Ortom, and also have Seyi Makinde, from Oyo state and we also have Governor Ugwuanyi of Enugu state. We also have former Governor of Ondo State, Dr Rahman Olusegun Mimiko, former governor of Ekiti State, Ayo Fayose, Former Governor of Plateau State, Jonah Jang, former Governor of Cross River State, Donald Duke.
They are all locked up somewhere around here. They’ve been meeting in the last 2 hours. And we were calling at the initial stage and we were told that we took pictures and journalists were allowed to do that. And after some time, journalists were excused that they went into these group meetings and they told us that after 2 hours that they’re going to call us for a communique though its past two hours now.
But Lo and Behold its past two hours now and they are unable to reach a consensus but the feelers we getting is that today they are going to come to a final conclusion of the integrity group and what they define and who they’re going to support at the end of the day. So they’re coming out with a final position.
It’s 94 days to the 2023rd general election and this government’s and this critical group within the People’s Democratic Party they are going to reach a critical decision today. So to say that will affect the fortune of the People’s Democratic Party, whether positively or negatively is yet to be seen.
So after this meeting we know the stand of this group within the People’s Democratic Party, they’ve called the group the Integrity Group.
Closing if these governors and their colleagues decide on another candidate apart from the party’s presidential candidate just coming together. But you would have seen from the body language of these G Five governors and these integrity group, what they’ve been saying is that they’ve had this kind of hardline stance that it’s not negotiable, that except the national chairman of the People’s Democratic Party vacates his position that there is no retreat, no surrender for them. And as I’m talking to you, the last time I checked, Iyorchia Ayu is still the chairman of the People’s Democratic Party.
So meaning that whatever decision they’re going to make today is going to go a long way to determine the outcome of the 2023 Presidential election. Partially, most of these people, they said before now that they are not ready to leave the People’s Democratic Party. But how they are going to do it, who they’re going to support with the presidency, is what they’ve not said. And they stated categorically that as long as Iyorchia Ayu remains the national Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party that they might not support the candidates of the People’s Democratic Party. Let me tell you how that works.
The presidential election is billed for the 23rd of February 2023 that it is. Two weeks after that we are going to have the governorship election. So somebody like Governor Wike can decide that he has chosen somebody within Rivers State, the former accountant General, as the governorship candidate, and he can still support him two weeks after.
The fate of who emerges as the president would have been determined two weeks before the governorship election. So that two weeks window will give them something as a group to work with. They might decide to work with the Labour Party, they might decide to work with the Peoples Democratic Party, and they might decide to work with the All Progressives Congress. It’s yet to be seen.
So we are hoping and we’re waiting, Journalists are all around here and they’re waiting to hear from this integrity group.
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