BY Dyepkazah Shibayan
Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and Nyesom Wike, governor of Rivers, met in the federal capital territory (FCT) on Thursday, TheCable understands.
The meeting was said to have held at the residence of Jerry Gana, a former minister of information and a member of the PDP board of trustees (BoT).
A source said Thursday’s meeting was “positive”, and that there would be more “fence-mending” in the coming days, which is aimed at resolving the crisis in the party since the presidential primary in May.
“Nyesom Wike and Atiku met today at professor Jerry Gana’s house in Abuja. It was a good meeting and there will be more meetings in the coming days,” the source said.
The meeting comes hours after the PDP BoT set up a committee to resolve the acrimony between both men.
Meanwhile, after a meeting with Wike, his allies and some PDP governors on Sunday, Gana had said Nigerians would be briefed about the party’s affairs as “developments unfold”.
“We have met together for the first time after the primaries of the PDP. We have frankly reviewed matters among ourselves,” he had said.
“We want to confirm that we are solidly together as a group and we also want to let the nation know that we shall keep our people briefed as developments unfold.”
THE CRISIS
The crisis in the party escalated after Abubakar picked Ifeanyi Okowa, governor of Delta, as his running mate for the 2023 presidential election.
Wike had contested the PDP presidential ticket in May but lost to the former vice-president after the dramatic withdrawal of Aminu Tambuwal, governor of Sokoto, from the race.
After the announcement of Okowa as PDP vice-presidential candidate, party stakeholders had expressed concerns that Abubakar ignored Wike — who was said to have been preferred by majority of the national working committee (NWC) members as the candidate for the position.
The division in the party worsened after Abubakar granted an interview to ARISE TV, during which the former vice-president said he did not pick Wike as his running mate because he wanted someone he could work with “amicably”.
Wike, however, fired back, saying the presidential candidate was lying and that he would speak on the issues soon.
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