Chairman of the board of trustees (BoT) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Walid Jibrin has said that the party will do whatever it takes even if it requires going on their knees to beg Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike not to dump the party.
Gatekeepers News reports that Wike had accused stakeholders from the south of “betrayal” after he lost the PDP presidential ticket to Atiku Abubakar, former vice-president, in May.
Wike was also snubbed as Atiku picked Governor of Delta State, Ifeanyi Okowa as his running mate which has brought about speculations that he might defect.
The Rivers Governor has also been visited by several politicians in recent times, including Peter Obi and Rabiu Kwankwaso, presidential candidates of the Labour Party and New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), respectively.
Jibrin, while speaking on efforts to ensure that the party remains united ahead of the 2023 elections, said a reconciliation committee will be constituted to visit the Wike.
“We in PDP know how to solve our problems. We know that governor Nyesom Wike may not be happy. It is the intention of this party to constitute a reconciliation committee that will meet Wike to talk to him, appeal to him, and pray that he will not leave our party,” he said.
Jibrin described Wike as “a great man who has been fighting for the party, and the party will not want to see him move to another party”.
He also said the PDP will meet with all the persons who participated in the primaries.
“We will all visit Wike together and if it means kneeling to Wike, we will kneel for him,” the BoT chairman said.
“We respect him. We respect his integrity and honesty in supporting the PDP. It is our belief that in any contest, there must be a winner and a loser.”
He also advised members of the party to be united in order to win the 2023 elections, adding that the PDP lost the recent governorship election in Ekiti because of lack of unity.
“I want to call on PDP members to work together in unity,” he said.
“We should not be divided against ourselves. We must unite within ourselves. If we begin to have problems among ourselves, there would be more problems for us.
“What happened in Ekiti should not happen in the next governorship election in Osun state. We lost Ekiti because we are not even united among ourselves. If we are united, we would have won in Ekiti hands down.”
