“Suspend Atiku, Tambuwal and rebuild your party”- Wike tells PDP
Former Rivers State Governor and Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja, Nyesom Wike has urged the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, to suspend it’s presidential candidate at the 2023 election, Atiku Abubakar and some of his loyalists as a step towards rebuilding the party.
Wike who described the People’s Democratic Party as currently disorganized was speaking in an interview on a Channels Television political programme, Politis Today, when he made the statement.
According to him, the party’s National Working Committee should suspend Atiku alongside erstwhile Director General of the PDP Presidential Campaign, Senator Waziri Tambuwal among others from the party.
He also described a former PDP presidential aspirant, Dele Momodu, as politically irrelevant noting that Momodu cannot win an election in his local government area.
Commenting on the verdict of the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal, PEPT yesterday, the former Rivers State Governor sang praises of the five-man panel that dismissed the petitions of both the Labour Party, LP and it’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi as well as the PDP and it’s candidate, Atiku Abubakar.
Wike said the judgement of the panel, led by Justice Tsammani was a job well done adding that the judgement served as an affirmation to President Bola Tinubu’s victory at the 2023 polls.
He added that the verdict was profound as it was based on sound judgment in terms of technicality and practicality.
Meanwhile, responding to a question on the subject, Wike said, The will of the people is determined through the ballot box. How could PDP have won the election when you consider the mood of the nation at that time?
“Look at the areas that the PDP did not win because of high-handedness, because of greed because of impunity. If the PDP had done what they were supposed to do, then you could have talked about that.
“There should be equity, there should be justice, there should be fairness and that is why I am calling on the National Working Committee they should suspend the presidential candidate, suspend people like Aminu Tambuwal so that they can rebuild the party (PDP).”
Attempts to get an official response from the PDP leadership were futile. However, a member of the party’s National Executive Committee who spoke on condition of anonymity said, “ Wike is desperate for attention, we will not indulge him, at the appropriate time he will hear from the party.”
Recall that Wike had recently dared the leadership of the PDP to suspend him for taking an appointment in an APC-led administration while he is still a member of the PDP.
Val9ja News had reported that the former Governor said he has not seen the party chieftain who will suspend or expel him from the party.
According to the report, Wike was quoted as saying:
“Who will discipline me? I should be the one calling for the discipline of these people who violated the party’s constitution, in the way that the party supported rotation.
“Who will suspend me? I want to dare anybody.”
It was also gathered that minister claimed he informed PDP leadership before he took the ministerial offer of President Bola Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) adding that he only to the ministerial offer to support president Tinubu in advancing the nation and ultimately finishing well.