Just few hours after Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta state was unveiled as a running mate to the Peoples Democratic Party’s presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, reports have begun to emerge that the choice might have triggered disagreement in the fold of the main opposition party.
It was reported that the announcement of Okowa as the party’s vice-presidential candidate has sparked controversies in the party, as some members of the National Working Committee (NWC) were said to be against his candidacy.
An insider source who spoke with the press said that the stormy weather was as a result of the refusal by the PDP National Chairman, Iyorchia Ayu to consider the position of the majority of the NWC members who had endorsed Governor Nyesom Wike for the Vice-Presidential candidate slot.
The source said the absence of the National Secretary, Deputy Chairman, South-south and some NWC members at the unveiling is an indication that they are against the choice of Okowa.
The source added that unless urgent steps were taken to stave off the impending crisis, the party might run into a constitutional crisis that could cost it the next election.
“Today’s event was scheduled for 12 noon. But it was delayed to wait for prominent members of the leadership.
“The National Secretary, Deputy Chairman, South-south, NWC members refused to show up at the ceremony even though they were at the Wadata Plaza.
“The PDP governors, apart from Okowa, bluntly refused to grace the occasion. The Bauchi Governor Bala Mohammed came in late and did not know that what was going on was the unveiling of the recommended candidate. Prominent members of the BoT abstained.
“The NWC members are insisting that the Party’s choice for the office of VP must be honoured and moreso as the choice had been communicated to the recommended candidate.
“They emphasised that there is nowhere in the Party’s constitution and the Electoral Act that the National Chairman and the Presidential Candidate have the power to decide for the Party who the Vice-presidential candidate should be.
“Leaders of the Party are calling for an urgent step to redress the situation, otherwise the Party will go into a Major Crisis that will rob it of victory in the forthcoming election,” the source was quoted to have said.
Meanwhile, the former Minister of Aviation, Osita Chidoka, who spoke on Politics Today, a Channels TV political programme monitored by The New Diplomat, Tuesday, said Okowa has the support of majority of the members of the party.
While acknowledging that there might be disappointment in the fold of the individuals that made the cut, Chidoka said it is not more than that, adding that everyone will work together to make the party win in the forthcoming 2023 general election.
In his words, “I wasn’t part of the process that chose him(Okowa), but I could see that there is wide acceptability amongst party people. Of course, there will be disappointment for those who didn’t make the final cut, and many of us had opinions about who should and who shouldn’t. But what we have today is that Atiku Abubakar is going to run with Ifeanyi Okowa, that’s where we are. And I think that that has generated some form of wide acceptability within the party.
“He’s a governor of the PDP, he’s particularly a party man. The famous Port-harcourt convention that many people praised, he was the chairman of that convention. He was the chairman of the electoral panel of the convention committee that made that convention work very well. He’s a stickler for details, and he has shown great interest in the work of the party over the years. So, I think that his appointment was widely welcome by members of the party.”
