By John Ugo
More confusion has continued to trail the leadership of the major opposition People Democratic Party (PDP) as the ongoing peace talks involving the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, his Oyo and Benue State counterparts, Seyi Makinde and Samuel Ortom respectively collapsed again as they met over the weekend in in London
The trio had met on Friday to deliberate on their next move in the face of the raging internal wrangling bedeviling the PDP .
Makinde has been on his annual vacation since the last meeting, Wike joined the Oyo state governor while Ortom made a stop over to the venue of the meeting while on his way to the USA.
A high profile member of the PDP leadership who disclosd the development said, “Unless a miracle happens, the reconciliation talks between Atiku and Wike have irretrievably collapsed.”
He stated that, “Wike and his team are currently in London where they met this afternoon and I have it on good authority that the Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu, will be joining them to conclude talks he started weeks ago.”
Also, a chieftain of the party said, “The die is cast, Wike and his team have been canvassing for a Southern President of Peoples Democratic Party extraction.”
It was learnt that the trio were prepared to make concessions in the interest of the party but the arrogance of some leaders on the other side has forced them to have a rethink.
According to the source, “They’re (Wike and others) are not considering leaving the party, far from it. We all knew what happened in 2015 and 2019, our troubles came mostly from within. The outsiders simply stepped up and slide into the cracks.
The National Chairman of the PDP, Iyiocha Ayu too has not helped matters. Instead of playing the role of a father to all, he chose to satisfy the longing of Atiku and a few of his expired political acolytes.
“If you can remember, Ayu did not contest an election, there wasn’t a contest . Initially there were three persons pencilled for the position when it was micro-zoned to Benue. They were: Sen. Gabriel Suswam, Sen. David Mark and Ayu.
“ It was the Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, who in consultation with Wike and others thought it wise to let it go to Ayu.
“ Ortom took it upon himself to talk to Suswam and Mark to get their buy in and they stepped down in deference to him. Wike provided the largest chunk of the logistics which Ayu was to use to reach out to other caucuses but today , he calls all of them children. We shall see,” he said.
