Makinde-led PDP defies Wike, insists on its primaries and convention

Ahead of the May 30th deadline given by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for submission of list of party’s candidates, the Makinde-led PDP on Wednesday, insisted on going ahead with arrangements for its primaries

…As Wike threatens banks collecting nomination fees for the group

The party also insisted on going ahead with its convention to produce the presidential candidate, in defiance to Wike’s plans to make the PDP adopt President Bola Tinubu as its presidential candidate.

Candidates contesting for the election on the platform of the party are expected to emerge from such primaries

Ini Ememobong, Spokesman for the group in a statement, described the Tanimu Turaki-led Interim National Management Committee (INMC), as the authentic custodian of the party

Recall that Nyesom Wike, the minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), had at his May press briefing on Wednesday threatened to “deal with the banks that will receive fees for the sale of forms by the Makinde group.

But Ememobong noted that “as the legitimate leadership of our political party, we sympathise with Wike for the pain concomitant with the realisation that he will not and can never be the National Leader of our party, as no such office exists in our constitution; and even if it did, he, by conduct and speech, would be grossly insufficient to assume such an exalted office.

According to him, “We understand his frustration about the commencement of the sale of forms and activities to hold primaries and eventually a national convention where a credible Nigerian will emerge as the presidential candidate.”

“This will mean that he has failed in his promise to “hold down” the party for his principal. The sale of forms is ongoing, and there is nothing Wike can do about it.

“His delusional boast of dealing with banks that will open accounts for us is delusional, as he is already aware that we are operating accounts of the party, which is why his group of friends are receiving money through private accounts.”

The party insisted that “there is no amount of threats that will frighten the truth, and that though lies like those vomited by Wike travel faster than the truth, they will not reduce the efficacy of the truth when it arrives”.

The group, while addressing the issue around the recent judgements, said, “While awaiting the release of the Certified True Copies of the dismissed cross-appeals, we would be glad to have the minister tell the world what the reliefs in the cross-appeals filed by his friends were and what the judgment of the court was.”

He berated Wike over what he called “unsolicited overdosage of political rascality, moral emptiness, crass opportunism, and post-loss trauma by Minister Nyesom Wike” during the media chat.

“The minister, a public figure, funded a media convergence where he threw decency to the wind and maligned distinguished Nigerians with reckless abandon. The session was “full of sound and fury, signifying nothing”.

“That show of shame deserves no response; hence, this statement is therefore not a response to his tirade, which is indeed his political swan song and the last kicks of a dying horse.

“This statement is rather a profuse apology to Nigerians for offering a platform to a person whose conduct, speeches, and reasoning have become not just a national but an international disgrace.

He stated that if the party regrets providing its platform to make him (Wike) a chairman, minister of State, and governor, the nation would have been saved the unmitigated damage done to the psyche of countless Nigerians.

“We admonish those he has defamed to seek legal redress, as no one is, and should be allowed to be, above the law.”