The Presidential Campaign Council of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), says the aggrieved governors of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are doing the “lord’s work” with the attack on the leadership of the opposition party.
The council, in a statement issued by one of its spokespersons, Festus Keyamo, said the PDP governors have exposed the leadership of the opposition party as lacking the capacity to unite it.
The aggrieved PDP governors led by Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State, have refused to back the presidential candidate of the party, Atiku Abubakar, over imbalance in its leadership.
The governors are demanding the removal of the PDP National Chairman, Iyorchia Ayu, as a condition to support and campaign for Atiku.
They said a southerner should replace My Ayu who is from the North as Atiku.
Mr Wike’s recent allegation of corruption against Mr Ayu has thrown the main opposition party into further crisis.
“Some of the governors can tell you. Will he (Ayu) deny the fact that he didn’t collect N1 billion from Lagos? Let him deny it, I will tell him who gave him the money, not from the Lagos State Government. The money was given to him in Lagos,” he said.
A few days after the allegation by Mr Wike, several NWC members returned about N120 million sent to them by the party.
The NWC members who returned the money are the National Vice Chairman (South-west) Olasoji Adagunodo; the Deputy National Chairman (South), Taofeek Arapaja; the National Vice Chairman (South), Dan Orbih, and the National Women Leader, Stella Affah-Attoe.
PDP unrepentant
In the statement, Mr Keyamo said the PDP has not changed as a political party, adding that Nigerians can no longer be deceived by the party.
“These frank and honest Governors are doing the Lord’s work for us. Every week, we are treated to a new revelation about the PDP crisis and its profligate and thieving nature. A leopard can hardly change its spot, which means that the PDP is not repentant of its old ways,” he said.
Mr Keyamo attacked the PDP for abandoning the rotational agreement for the ambition of Atiku.
He added that the candidate of the PDP “cannot cede the opportunity to others in the spirit of national inclusion and cohesion, having consistently put his own personal interest above national interest. These concerns were expressed by some PDP Governors themselves.”
Amidst the crisis, the ruling party and its candidate, Bola Tinubu, have reached out to the Wike’s camp to reach political arrangements.
Mr Tinubu reportedly met with the PDP governors in London in August though the outcome of the meeting remains unknown.