THISDAY gathered that the governors held strategic meetings in those tours as part of their ongoing efforts to ensure that the issue of the presidential candidate of the party does not polarise its members along regional lines.
Meanwhile, the All Progressives Congress (APC) has said that Ayu’s utterances during his inauguration have shown that the sole intent of the opposition party is to grab power by any means in 2023.
The first European tour by the PDP governors, it was learnt, was a visit to London moments after the October 30 and 31 national conventions while the second visit was a visit to Spain last week.
Among the governors on the second trip to Spain were: Wike; Makinde; Ikpeazu; Ahmadu Fintiri (Adamawa); and Dr. Samuel Ortom (Benue).
Hon. Aminu Waziri Tambawul did not attend the meetings due to their ongoing consultations on their presidential aspirations.
A source privy to the strategic meetings told THISDAY last night that Governor Ortom is the architect of a consensus presidential candidate for the PDP and would host the meeting in Makurdi tonight.
According to the source, the PDP governors while in London met a former Senate President, Dr. Bukola
“PDP governors from the South agreed at the London meeting that they must play a significant role in the choice of who will fly the party’s presidential ticket,” he said.
He further disclosed that because of Wike’s relationship with Real Madrid Football Club, he travelled, in addition with other governors, with the Adamawa State governor, Fintiri who did not make the earlier London trip.
The governors posed for photographs at Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabeu Stadium, which went viral.
“At their Real Madrid meeting, the governors reiterated the need for a consensus presidential candidate to avoid the rancour that could emanate as a fall-out to an elective convention.
“But the PDP governors have not agreed on any choice of a consensus candidate, whether from South or North,” the source added.
Mohammed was yet to buy into the idea of a consensus candidate.
The source, who was at the London and Real Madrid meetings, told THISDAY that Oyo State governor, Makinde, has also not bought into the idea of a consensus candidate.
Tambawul, it was gathered, said that he was still consulting on his presidential ambition and would soon come up with his decision.
As part of the efforts to smoothen some rough edges on the consensus presidential candidate, the PDP governors will again meet in Makurdi after the reception for the new national chairman, Ayu.
Meanwhile, a former Director-General of the PDP Governors’ Forum, Osaro Onaiwu, has called on all PDP 2023 presidential aspirants to rein in on their aides and their supporters ahead of the 2023 presidential primary election of the party.
“Forming a common front as we approach the 2023 presidential poll, even though from the various camps is essential in ensuring we go into the presidential election which is the ultimate for the party, as one house.
“To this extent, I call on presidential aspirants of our great party, Peoples Democratic Party, to please ensure they show leadership by calling their followers and their aides to order, ahead of their campaigns. As consultations and campaigns commence in earnest, I urge the presidential aspirants to do so with the spirit of sportsmanship, which is the hallmark of every democracy.
They warned that the strong party leaders who saw to his emergence could also remove him from office.
APC: PDP Only Desperate to Grab Power in 2023
In a related development, the APC has said that Ayu’s utterances have shown that the sole intent of the opposition party is to grab power by any means in 2023.
The Secretary of the Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC), Senator John Akpanudoedehe, in a statement issued yesterday, said the new PDP leadership must prove to Nigerians that it is willing and ready to discard its penchant for impunity and not empty rhetoric of 2023 hand-over notes.
Akpanudoedehe noted that the Ayu-led PDP has shown early signs that it was not different from the immediate past leadership of the opposition party.
He added that the sit-tight syndrome headlined by the PDP’s ill-fated third-term agenda has been discarded as an undemocratic template.
Akpanudoedehe stressed that the priority of this administration has been clearing the national rot left behind by the PDP’s shambolic handling of insecurity in its early days, its financial heist under the guise of procuring military weapons, fuel subsidy rackets, diverted loans, voodoo economics, abuse of public institutions and electoral fraud.
Akpanudoedehe listed Buhari’s efforts to include what he described as continuous electoral reforms and non-interference in the functions of INEC; institutional reforms which have ensured financial autonomy for local government councils; financial autonomy of state legislatures and judiciaries; assenting the long-delayed Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), among others.
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