The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Atiku Abubakar, has dismissed allegations that the party is ‘northernsed’ for zoning party and Board of Trustees chairmen to the same region.
The PDP chairman, Iyorcha Ayu, hails from Benue State, while the BoT chairman, Walid Jibril, is from Nasarawa State.
But Mr Abubakar, who spoke with newsmen on Thursday while returning to the country after a long holiday to attend party’s mega rally in Osun, described the claim as untrue.
He said: “It’s absolutely not northernised, I don’t agree with that.”
The PDP presidential flagbearer also said the current crisis rocking the opposition party is normal in politics, adding that he is willing to meet Governor Nyesom Wike who is at the centre of the crisis.
“It is nothing new in politics that some people get angry when things don’t go their way. So we will overcome that. I have every belief that we are going to do that.
When asked if he would be willing to have a physical meeting with Mr Wike for reconciliation, he answered in the affirmative, saying: “Why not? I’m open to that.”
Recall that Messrs Abubakar and Wike had been at loggerheads over the former’s refusal to pick the latter as his running mate, despite a reported recommendation by a committee of the party to do so.
This development angered the Rivers governor who is reportedly mulling defection ideas.
Pointer to this is when three All Progressives Congress, APC, governors visited Mr Wike in Port Harcourt allegedly to woo the governor into the party to support the APC presidential flagbearer, Bola Tinubu.
The three governors, Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti; Sanwo-Olu of Lagos and; Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo, held a closed door meeting with Mr Wike.
