By Abibat Aliu
Seven members of the Board of Trustees of the Peoples Democratic Party had a meeting with Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State today.
The BoT members arrived at the Government House in Port Harcourt, the venue of the meeting on Tuesday morning.
They are Acting Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Adolphus Wabara; Ibrahim Idris, Shuaib Oyedokun, Zainab Maina, Esther Uduehi, Okwesilieze Nwodo, and Tanimu Turaki.
The visiting BoT members are joined for the meeting by some BoT members who are from Rivers State and other state leaders of the party.
The Rivers contingent for the meeting are the State Chairman of the PDP, Desmond Akawor; former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Chibudom Nwuche; BoT member and chairman of the Rivers PDP Elders Council, Ferdinand Anabraba; former Chief Whip of the Senate, Adawari Pepple; Chief of Staff to the Rivers State Governor, Emeka Woke; elder statesmen, Sam-Sam Jaja and Emma Anyanwu.
Before the meeting began, Wike requested the BoT members to allow journalists to cover the session to avoid a distortion of facts.
Wike argued that his discussions and the outcome of his meetings with PDP stakeholders since the crisis began have always been distorted and misinterpreted.
He, however, succumbed to the opinion of the Wabara who pleaded that the meeting be held privately and journalists are briefed afterward.
Wike and his allies had on September 20 announced their withdrawal from the presidential campaign council of Atiku Abubakar.
They were also absent from the inauguration of Atiku’s campaign council on September 28, 2022, as they argued that northerners should not occupy the two top positions of the party.
Others in Wike’s camp include former Governors Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo, Ayo Fayose of Ekiti, Donald Duke of Cross River, Ibrahim Dankwambo of Gombe, and Jonah Jang of Plateau.
Others are elder statesmen, Olabode George, and Jerry Gana; South-South Chairman of the PDP, Dan Orbih; former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Chibudom Nwuche; Senator Suleiman Nazif, Nnenna Ukeje.
For months, Wike and his allies have continued to call for the resignation of PDP National Chairman, Iyorchia Ayu, after Atiku (from Adamawa State) trounced the Rivers State governor at the PDP primary in May and emerged the presidential candidate of the party.
Wike and his loyalists have argued that northerners cannot hold the two most important posts in the main opposition party.
Ayu, who hails from Benue State also in northern Nigeria, had in October 2021 said he would vacate the chairmanship seat if the region produces the PDP presidential candidate.
However, the chairman said he won’t resign and will be in office till the end of his four-year tenure.
Earlier, then-PDP Board of Trustees Chairman, Walid Jibrin, and a northerner from Nasarawa State agreed that it is unfair for the party to have its presidential candidate and national chairman from the same region.
Jibrin had weeks back resigned amid the crisis and PDP BoT had subsequently announced Wabara (from Abia State), as acting BoT chairman of the party but Wike’s camp insisted that Ayu must go.
The details of the meeting were still being expected by the time our correspondent filed this report.
