PDP crisis: Fresh pressure on Atiku over party issues

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Ahead of the 2023 presidential election, fresh pressure is mounting on the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, to review his earlier position on the face-off between him and Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State and four other governors elected on the platform of the party.

Wike and his Oyo State counterpart, Seyi Makinde, as well as Governors Samuel Ortom of Benue State,  Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia and Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu are all at loggerheads with Atiku and the party’s hierarchy over their insistence that Senator Iyorcia Ayu, the National Chairman of the PDP, should vacate his position for a southerner to replace him.

Atiku had objected to the call, saying it is not a good time to change the leadership of the party.

Last weekend, feelers from the Atiku camp indicated that the presidential candidate has mapped out new strategies with which he intends to triumph in the states where the aforementioned governors hold sway as the chief executives. This was after the PDP presidential candidate announced that he had moved on beyond his face-off with the governors as he was focused on winning the 2023 presidential election.

But fresh indications suggest that Atiku has come under more pressure from chieftains of the party who feel the need for him to reconcile with the aggrieved governors ahead of the next presidential election in the interest of the opposition party.

Report gathered that some chieftains of the party intensified efforts to get Atiku to backtrack after Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State said he may withdraw from the PDP Presidential Campaign Council (PCC).