Wike, Ortom, Ikpeazu, Fayose’s visits to Tinubu spark reactions in PDP

The visits of some former governors of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), including the G-5 elements, to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, have sparked speculations and outrage within the leading opposition party.

Former governor of Ekiti State, Ayo Fayose, and two G-5 members – Samuel Ortom (Benue) and Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia) – were led on the visit at the weekend by the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike.

The visit came a few days after President Bola Ahmed Tinubu praised Wike’s giant strides as minister and disclosed that he would be welcomed into the All Progressives Congress (APC) anytime he decides to pitch a tent with the ruling party.

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Recall that Wike recently said he would work for the re-election of President Tinubu in 2027, at a time the PDP, his party, is neck-deep in crises. Daily Trust reports that the G-5 governors of the PDP worked against the party in the 2023 general polls.

Reacting to the visit, a former national secretary of the PDP, Alhaji Ibrahim Tsauri, told Daily Trust that Wike and his allies had done everything that should warrant their expulsion from the PDP.

He noted that leadership failure and lack of capacity have continued to hamper the Umar Damagum-led National Working Committee (NWC) from sanctioning Wike and his group.

Tsauri, however, expressed hope that the coming National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting and the August National Convention would put the party on the right track.

“These are people who have already confirmed that they are going to support the president come 2027. So, what do you expect?

“Are they PDP or APC? We look at them as people who are trying to kill the PDP, and they are doing that. They are doing the bidding of the president and the APC. It’s not a new thing to us.

“Of course, they are members of the PDP, constitutionally. But the question is, now there is morality. They are already in the APC, because they are going to support the president. That’s what they said.

“Any right-thinking person, anybody with life in his body who belongs to PDP will never support Tinubu to be the president of this country come 2027. So, if you are in the PDP and claim that you are going to support him, that means, you are not sincere. So, you better leave. If Wike joins the APC, the better for the PDP, “ he said.

Also speaking on the development, Alhaji Umar Sani, a former Spokesperson of the PDP Presidential Campaign Council, said the situation is not just “disappointing; it is utterly alarming.”

He said, “This reunion of the discredited G-5 epitomises the betrayal that undermined the PDP during the 2023 presidential election, sending a dangerous signal to loyal party members and the Nigerian public.

“These individuals flagrantly disregarded the collective will of the PDP, actively campaigned against the party’s presidential candidate, and played a pivotal role in the APC’s rise to power.

“Their brazen willingness to embrace the very figure they purportedly helped install, without a shred of shame or accountability, is a direct affront to every committed member of the PDP.”

He also said, “The participation of Samuel Ortom as a sitting BoT member elevates this from a mere personal visit to a matter of grave ethical and political concern regarding party discipline and unity.”

Sani in a post on his X handle said, “This meeting transcends mere optics; it perpetuates a dangerous cycle of disloyalty, disobedience, and self-serving interests.

“If the PDP hopes to rebuild and assert itself as a credible alternative in Nigeria’s political landscape, it can no longer tolerate acts of sabotage masquerading as political consultations. Silence at this critical juncture would be identical to complicity.”