True to their decision not to be part of the PDP Presidential Campaign Council, Rivers State Governor and book launch, Nyesom Wike and his Oyo and Benue counterparts, Seyi Makinde and Samuel Ortom, shunned the inauguration of the campaign council which was held in Abuja.
Others who were conspicuously absent were Governor Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State, Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State, Prof Jerry Gana, ex-Ekiti State governor, Ayo Fayose and former governor of Plateau State, Jonah Jang.
The list of top party chieftains who did not attend the party’s presidential campaign inauguration also includes ex-Cross River State governor, Donald Duke, Chief Bode George, and former Ondo State governor, Olusegun Mimiko.
But on hand to lend support to the party’s presidential candidate were the governors of Adamawa State, Ahmadu Fintiri, Bala Mohammed (Bauchi State); Duoye Diri (Bayelsa State); Godwin Obaseki (Edo State); Darius Ishaku (Taraba State) and the Delta State governor and vice-presidential candidate, Ifeanyi Okowa.
Others include former Senate Presidents, Adolphus Wabara (also the current PDP BoT chairman) and Bukola Saraki; former governors Boni Haruna (Adamawa), Babangida Aliyu (Niger), Ibrahim Shema (Katsina), Sule Lamido (Jigawa) and a host of other party stalwarts.
Atiku had deployed his special envoy and former Senate President, Bukola Saraki to appeal to the Wike’s group, which penultimate Wednesday pulled out of the campaign council, citing the refusal of the national chairman of the party, Iyorchia Ayu, to step down.
A member of the NWC had earlier in the week told said that Saraki’s intervention was yielding results, attributing Ortom’s decision to back Ayu to Saraki’s reconciliatory efforts.
However, Ortom, a known Wike ally boycotted the event, a development his associates attributed to the treatment allegedly meted out to him by Atiku.
Speaking with our correspondent in confidence, an ally of Governor Ortom said, “The group His Excellency (Ortom) belongs to decided not to attend. He is a team player and they decided they were not going to be part of it. That is it.”