By Chidi Levi
A big fish may have willingly slipped into the dragnet of the Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party and former Governor of Anambra State,Peter Obi.
Barring an eleventh-hour change of heart, Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, will, in January, name Obi as his preferred Candidate for the 2023 presidential election, The Source can authoritatively reveal.
Though a PDP Governor, it is well known that Wike is not supporting the Party’s Presidential candidate and former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar.
The Governor became estranged from the Party and Atiku after losing the PDP Presidential ticket and the VP slot. Atiku chose Wike’s counterpart in Delta state, Ifeanyi Okowa, a decision that rankled supporters of the River State Governor.
Embittered, Wike now leads a band of “renegade” PDP Governors and a handful of party chieftains who he calls his allies.
From G-5 the Group which has Governors Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi( Enugu), Okezie Ikpeazu( Abia) Seyi Mankind( Oyo) Sam Ortom( Benue) and of course Wike himself as members has now re-styled itself the Integrity Group.
Multiple sources close to the group have, however, informed this magazine that Wike may soon become a loner as the other four Governors have perfected plans to rejoin the larger PDP fold.
Essentially, with Atiku’s emergence as a candidate, Wike and his group insisted on equity and demanded that the office of the National Chairman of the Party currently held by a Northerner, Iyorchia Ayu from Benue state, be ceded to the South.
They are demanding Ayu’s resignation as a condition to support Atiku, but Atiku and the National Leadership of the Party have practically rebuffed the group.
Party sources told this magazine that Atiku has irrevocably decided to move on without Wike.
Now, clearly outflanked and abandonement starring him in the face, Wike is determined not to suffer political isolation.
He is resolute in paying Atiku back in his own coin. This, the magazine was informed, account for his decision to openly declare for Obi.
On the surface, Wike’s impending partisanship on the side of Obi would appear an altruistic desire to aid the Labour Party’s sail to Aso Rock but according to an insider in the Integrity Group, Wike’s support for Obi is not necessarily intended to facilitate the victory of the Labour party presidential candidate but to starve the PDP/ Atiku of South-South and South-East votes, leaving the Southwest intact for the All Progressives Congress, APC, candidate, Bola Tinubu while he (Tinubu) and Atiku battle for Northern votes.
In other words, in January when Wike is expected to declare support for Obi, he would be doing so as an indirect support for Tinubu.
Said the insider: “Wike is a proxy supporter of Tinubu. He does not believe in the Obi project, he does not believe that Obi will win beyond the Southeast and South-south. He is indirectly working for Tinubu but politically naive Igbo will hail him. He will profess love for him when he declares for Obi while indirectly working for Tinubu but what Wike has failed to understand is that looking at the current political firmament, the coming presidential election is actually a straight fight between Obi and Atiku, the other person is a regional project”
Meanwhile, in the coming days, Wike will look back and may not see his comrades behind him.
The other four Governors who are candidates in the 2023 elections, the magazine was reliably informed, have decided to drop their rebellion and rejoin the PDP family as well as participate in the Atiku campaign in order not to jeopardise their chances at the polls.
They also reportedly beat a quick retreat to avoid an impending sanction from the party.
While Governors Ugwuanyi, Ikpeazu and Ortom are Senatorial candidates of the Party, Mankinde is seeking re-election as a second term Governor.
A reliable Party source informs that the PDP National Leadership has come to a dead end as far as the Wike intransigence is concerned and is now ready to bare its fang.
“Truth is, Ayu will not resign as Wike and his group are demanding, and if Wike makes good his threat to openly declare support for another party, that will amount to poking a finger in PDP’s eyes; the party will react harshly”, the source said.
According to him, several punitive measures against Wike and any of his allies who manifestly commit anti-party are being considered, including dissolution of the state Working Committee of such state and outright expulsion.
Fear of expulsion and possible evisceration of their Governorship and Senatorial ambitions respectively, the magazine learnt, is at the heart of the current move by Makinde, Ortom, Ugwuanyi and Ikpeazu to make peace with Atiku. January will tell.
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