The vice presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Governor of Delta State, Dr Ifeanyi Okowa, has denied the accusation that he betrayed the purported Asaba Accord for the presidency to shift to the South this year.
The vice presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Governor of Delta State, Dr Ifeanyi Okowa, has denied the accusation that he betrayed the purported Asaba Accord for the presidency to shift to the South this year.
Instead, the governor said it was his Rivers State counterpart, Nyesom Wike that has been plotting to abuse the constitution of the party before and after he failed to secure the presidential ticket of the party. Okowa said the blame- game and the blackmail of being a traitor to the Southern Nigeria project must stop as the outcome of the Asaba meeting of the Southern Governors, which included opposition party governors, was misconstrued.
He said after the governors of the All Progressives Congress (APC) had collapsed the communiqué to their party level, PDP collapsed its own by throwing the contest open and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar won.
He said as the chairman of the South-South Governors Forum, there was no meeting where Wike declared his intention for president, and he did not visit Delta, like other PDP aspirants from other zones did, to canvass for support at the primary election. His Chief Press Secretary, Mr Olise Ifeajika, who disclosed this in a statement in Asaba, yesterday, said it was Wike that connived with the Samuel Ortom-led Primary Election Committee that threw the contest open to all zones. His words: “The G-5 should stop the distractions. Where were these governors (G-5) when Ortom’s committee submitted their report? PDP as a party has not offended them. They should beat a retreat.
“This ‘Ayu must go’ by Wike is an abuse of the constitution of the party. The constitution does not say presidential candidate cannot come from the same place with the national chairman. What it stipulated is the president. Atiku has not emerged as the president; so why the blame game? The same Wike didn’t come close to Delta to canvass for support.”
Credit: The Nigeria Lawyers