Ahead of the presidential election, governors of Bayelsa and Edo on Tuesday visited their Delta State counterpart and PDP vice presidential candidate, Ifeanyi Okowa.
The governor’s appealed to the G5 Governors to sheath their sword and work for the victory of the PDP in the forthcoming poll.
The governors who were in Uwalero, the country home of Governor Okowa in Ika North East Council said the visit is to felicitate him for the new year.
In his address at the meeting, the Bayelsa governor noted that the PDP leadership was not ruling out discussion with the quintet to return to the party ahead of the election.
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Governor Diri said “We want a united PDP and each time we meet, we focus and discuss the unity. We are not foreclosing speaking to our brothers, even today, we have talked about that and we are still calling on our brother-governors to be part of their own party and work in unity with every other person”.
The five governors – Nyesome Wike (Rivers), Samuel Ortom (Benue), Seyi Makinde (Oyo), Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia), and Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Enugu) – had demanded the resignation of the party’s national chairman, Iyorchia Ayu, as a precondition for supporting the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, in next month’s election.
HURIWA warns G5 governors against endorsing Tinubu’s Muslim-Muslim ticket
Civil rights advocacy group, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has warned the G5, the group of five aggrieved governors of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), against endorsing the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, ahead of the 2023 presidential election because of the Muslim-Muslim ticket of the party.
Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, National Coordinator of HURIWA, said in a statement on Saturday that if the purported support of Tinubu by the G5 was genuine, it would be a “betrayal of constitutional democracy and a grievous injustice that defies the Federal Character principles.”
After meeting the former Lagos State Governor in London last week, there was speculation that the G5 will back Tinubu and his running mate, Kashim Shettima.
Though the leader of the G5, Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State said on Friday that the group has not endorsed Tinubu, there is still apprehension as the G5 had promised to announce their preferred candidate sometime this month.