Wike absent as South-South PDP govs restate support for Atiku-Okowa

At a meeting on Wednesday in Yenagoa, the capital of Bayelsa State, governors of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the South-South supported Atiku Abubakar and Ifeanyi Okowa, the party’s presidential candidate.

Godwin Obaseki (Edo), Ifeanyi Okowa (Delta), Udom Emmanuel (Akwa Ibom), and the host Duoye Diri are among the governors (Bayelsa).

Nyesom Wike, the governor of Rivers State, notably skipped the meeting though. The G5 group, led by Wike, is upset that northerners have emerged as the PDP presidential candidate and the party’s national chairman (Iyorchia Ayu). They have constantly pushed for Ayu to be replaced by a southerner.

After the meeting, Obaseki spoke to the media and stated that the purpose of the gathering was to support Atiku and Okowa in advance of the 2023 general elections.

He mentioned that the regional governors of the party also gathered in Bayelsa to express sympathy to a colleague whose state had recently been devastated by flooding.

“We have a PDP South-South Governors Forum and our vice presidential candidate, Dr Ifeanyi Okowa is our Chairman and we decided to host a meeting of the Forum in Bayelsa this evening to have an opportunity to come and visit our brother who has gone through so much in the flooding crisis we have here,” he said.

“It also afforded us an opportunity to discuss matters of mutual interest to us PDP governors ahead of the next presidential and national elections.

“We also want to use the opportunity to come and show support and also find out from our brother, the vice presidential candidate, Dr Ifeanyi Okowa on the goings on on the national level and to reiterate our total support for the candidacy of President Atiku Abubakar and to assure them that we are here.”