…We’re hopeful – Wike
After four hours of meeting at the Port Harcourt, Rivers state home of Governor Nyesom Wike on Tuesday, former Senate President and Acting Chairman of Board of Trustee (BOT) of the People Democratic Party (PDP), Adolphus Wabara revealed no conclusion has been reached on the search for truce in the crisis rocking the party.
The BOT team led by Wabara however met in closed-doors with the Rivers state governor in company of other Rivers PDP chieftains without the presence of the familiar governors who are allies of Wike.
Out from the interaction, Wabara said, “This meeting took about four hours. We have not concluded. It’s always easy to destroy, but to make peace takes some time. I think we are better informed, gotten some information.
“You know every coin has two sides. We have been briefed by his Excellency. So we will go back to Abuja to re-digest all we gathered from His Excellency, very frank talks, but one good thing is that this family remains one, still under that umbrella called PDP.
“And by the special grace of God, we will end up victorious and end up at the Villa in 2023 with his (Wike’s) cooperation and support of all the other governors, four of them. No doubt we will make progress.
“In concrete terms, it’s work in progress. This is the first time the BOT is coming to see his Excellency and for your information he is also a member. We rubbed minds. We will find a solution to all the problems, very soon.
“The presidential campaigns have started and it is the policy of our party that we all go home and His Excellency is here, campaigning for the party. I will go to Abia state where I come from to campaign. There is no ballot box for me in Abuja. Everyone of us here is from one zone or the other.
“Our governor here is a PDP governor. Even if he hasn’t come out to campaign, he has campaigned already with all the projects he has given Rivers and Nigeria as we speak.
“I’m an Acting Chairman of the BOT. I don’t have the exclusiveness to tell you what the BOT will come up with. We have come here, we are going back. We will convene a meeting of the BOT, brief them, and that’s when Nigeria would hear where the BOT stands.
“Since it’s an advisory body and conscience of the party, we will be there to tell the party the truth, nothing but the truth on our findings.
Wike speaks
On his own, Wike said: “To add to what the BOT Acting Chairman has said, peace is the most important thing to have unity. Even if it takes you longer days, what is important is that the house is united for the war coming ahead.
“So the issue of whether they achieve peace today or not is immaterial. What matters is that at the end of the day, PDP is a united house. I think that is the message being conveyed.
“We have said repeatedly that we are not leaving the party, but that does not mean there are no internal issues that ought to be sorted out. I think what they are here for is to sort out some internal issues. That point has been made.
“Of course I’m hopeful. It is only a dead person that is not hopeful. Being alive is ultimately that you are hopeful.”
Vanguard
