JAGISTS

Five aggrieved governors on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party held a closed-door meeting on Sunday in Enugu, South-East Nigeria.

Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Enugu) hosted his brother governors including Nyesom Wike, (Rivers), Samuel Ortom (Benue), Seyi Makinde, (Oyo), and Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia).

The meeting reportedly lasted for several hours and the five governors didn’t address reporters when they emerged from the meeting.

Sunday’s meeting was one of the several gatherings that Wike and his allies have had in recent weeks as they mount pressure on the PDP National Chairman, Iyorchia Ayu, to step down for a southerner.

On September 20, Wike and his allies met in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, where they announced their withdrawal from the presidential campaign council of the party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar.

They were also absent from the inauguration of Atiku’s campaign council on September 28, 2022.

Wike and Atiku had fallen apart after the latter won the PDP presidential primary in May. There were reports that a committee considered Wike as Atiku’s running mate but the presidential candidate settled for Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State, a move that irked the Rivers governor, who pushed for southern Presidency.

Wike and his supporters in the party subsequently insisted that Ayu quit as the party’s national chairman. They argued that northerners cannot be the party’s presidential flag bearer and national chairman, claiming that Ayu had before the primary promised to resign should someone from his region emerge as the presidential candidate of the PDP.