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Atiku campaigns in Kaduna, Wike holds UK meeting

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The five affected PDP governors led by Rivers State Governor Nisom Wake will meet today (Thursday) in London, United Kingdom

Recall that Wike, Governors Seyi Makinde (Oyo), Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia), Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Enugu) and Samuel Ortom (Benue) recently withdrew their membership of the PDP Presidential Campaign Council, insisting on the removal of the National Chairman of the party, Iyorchia Ayu.

Wike is not happy with the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar after the latter settled for the Delta State Governor, Ifeanyi Okowa as his running mate despite reportedly having an agreement to run with the Rivers State’s governor on a joint ticket after Wike lost to him in the primary.

In September, Wike, Makinde and Ortom met in London and today’s meeting is expected to take certain decisions ahead of the 2023 poll.

It was learnt that Monday’s decision by the party and Atiku to flag off the campaign without Wike and his allies may have informed the latest meeting.

So far, efforts at reconciliation between Atiku and Wake allies have not been successful. The party’s Board of Trustees, led by the acting president, Adolphus Waparra, set up a reconciliation committee to intervene in the lingering crisis but were unable to broker peace as expected.

Wike vowed to stay in the party, nevertheless promising that it had nothing to do with presidential campaigns unless Io left.

It comes as the All Progressives Congress candidate, Asiwaju Bula Tinubu, was described by the PDP as someone stunned by Atiku’s astonishing display at the highly successful flag-raising ceremony of the presidential campaign in Oyo.

The party maintained that Tinubu had become so disoriented that he was no longer able to express or engage in any productive and focused political discourse.

The HDP announced on Wednesday, through a statement of its spokesperson, Dipu Ologonagba, insisting that the APC candidate lacks depth as reflected in his recent statements against other political parties.

Meanwhile, Atiku/Okwa presidential campaign spokesperson, Kola Olugbundian, has given Nigerians confidence that the anguish and pain they are currently experiencing under APC rule will stop when Atiku wins the 2023 elections.

Olugbondian noted that there was interaction with some PDP youth in Abuja on Wednesday.

He noted that the Democratic Progressive Party and the bearer of the presidential flag were concerned about the pain and suffering inflicted by the APC on citizens in the past seven years.

He stated, “Among the arrays of presidential candidates, only Atiku Abubakar has the practicable plan on how to end the pains, the hunger, the starvation, the economic woes, the lower purchasing power and the sense of hopelessness which the APC administration has brought upon Nigerians,

The PDP spokesman, Ologunagba who stressed that the APC’s presidential candidate has proved to Nigerians that he is incapable of serious presidential discourse, said, “It is nevertheless disgraceful that the APC front man, Tinubu, who is facing multiple legitimacy and disqualification issues, is displaying such vacuity in the public domain.’’

He said, “Dazed by the resounding presentation of the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar at the hugely successful flag-off of our presidential campaign in Uyo, Akwa-Ibom State, on Monday, October 10, 2022, Asiwaju Tinubu has become disoriented to the extent that he can no longer articulate or engage in any productive and focused political discourse.

“If there is any party that can be described as a “termite party” of course it will not be the PDP which is fully “articulated” and soaring with its campaign but the doomed APC that is crawling, having become legally crippled and no longer a legitimate and valid vehicle to field candidates in the 2023 general elections.”

“Since he procured the APC ticket, the APC candidate has not made any meaningful comment or contribution to serious national issues, instead he has been engaging in illogical, incoherent and fatuous utterances.”

In a related development, the Kaduna State chapter of the PDP on Wednesday inaugurated a 60-member presidential campaign council with the former governor of the state, Alhaji Mukhtar Yero as its chairman ahead of Atiku’s planned visit to the state.

Yero was inaugurated alongside a former Director-General of the National Emergency Management Agency and PDP governorship aspirant, Mohammed Sani Sidi, as the deputy chairman of the committee.

Other members of the committee are Haruna Sa’eed, Mohammed Abbas, the National Youth Leader, Muhammed Kadade, Shehu Sani, and 54 others.

Inaugurating the council members at the party secretariat, the state PDP Chairman, Hassan Hyat, said it was expected that the committee members will work vigorously for the victory of the party’s presidential candidate.

He said the party in Kaduna State was waxing stronger with the presidential campaign already flagged off in Uyo State.

Hyatt explained that due to the special nature of Kaduna, the state’s three-day working presidential candidate will be on a special mission where he will communicate with key party stakeholders across the three Senate districts

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