…Hails BoT chair for wooing Otti
Stephen Ukandu, Umuahia
PDP Frontiers for Change and Progress, has knocked the Minister for Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Mr Nyesom Wike, for accusing the party’s Chairman of Board of Trustees, Senator Adolphus Wabara, of anti-party over the latter’s commendation of Gov Alex Otti of Abia State.
The group said that, “Wike who claims to be a PDP member but proudly serving under an APC-led Federal Government as a Minister,” had lost the moral impetus to accuse any PDP member of anti-party.
It argued that Wabara’s personal opinion on Gov. Otti’s infrastructural strides in Abia State “was not only the incontrovertible truth but also aimed at wooing the Governor to the PDP ahead of 2027.”
According to the group, the former Senate President “rather deserves commendation and not condemnation for his genuine efforts to expand PDP’s membership.”
National Coordinator of the group, Mr Emeka Yellow Ikpegbu, was responding to Wike’s outburst against Wabara at the discredited PDP’s South-South Zonal Congress held in Calabar, Cross River State, on Saturday.
Recall that Wike had during his remark at “the purported congress which had since been disowned by the PDP National Working Committee, NWC,” accused Wabara of anti-party for “praising Gov. Otti from another party.”
Wike also accused PDP leaders and Governors of hypocrisy and insincerity to the growth of the party.
He said: “You have a BoT Chairman who says he is the conscience of the party but he has no regrets in praising the Governor of a Labour Party in Abia State. What’s more anti-party than that?”
Obviously alluding to his enstranged political godson and successor, Gov. Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers State, Wike added: Why are PDP Governors not disciplining their fellow Governor helping other parties to win election?
But the PDP pro-group in a swift reaction, told Wike to stop pointing accusing fingers at Wabara who it said, “has been fighting to resist impunity, and reposition PDP for a re-bounce.”
According to the group, Wabara’s fair comments on Otti were “based on obvious and undeniable achievements of the Governor, and a smart move to possibly bring him into the PDP fold ahead of 2027.”
The group in a statement, in Umuahia, lauded Wabara for the bold move to woo Gov. Otti who it described as a big asset for PDP.
It challenged Wike “to also woo his principal, President Ahmed Bola Tinubu, if sincerely he is still a member of the PDP.”
The statement read in part: “Wike should first bring his principal, President Bola Tinubu, who he praises everyday to the PDP before preaching to us about anti-party.
“Is there any anti-party as bad as a former Governor and a presidential aspirant in PDP serving as a Minister under APC? How many times has Wike publicly praised President Tinubu yet nobody has sanctioned him for anti-party. Why will he begin to lecture us now on how to sanction members for anti-party?”
The group told Wike to leave Wabara and PDP Governors alone, urging him to formally join the APC instead of remaining in the PDP to cause confusion.
“PDP members are satisfied with the efforts of our Governors and the Senator Wabara-led BoT members to rebuild the party destroyed by APC moles in PDP clothing, insatiable despots bent on burying the party.”
The group said that the refusal of Wabara and PDP Governors to “sell the PDP” was the reason they have remained subjects of constant misguided attacks by those “hired to kill and burry PDP.”
It also commended the PDP Governors and the party’s BoT for their uncompromising stance in the Rivers’ political crisis; as well as for affirming Chief Sunday Ude-Okoye as the party’s National Secretary based on the Enugu Court of Appeal judgment.
Predicting brighter future for the PDP in 2027, the group urged party members to resist any attempt to intimidate those striving to rescue and reposition the PDP.
It pledged support for the BoT and PDP Governors in their efforts to rescue and rebuild the party.
