The Presidential Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, the national chairman of the party, Iyorchia Ayu, and other loyalists have activated their plan to win states where some aggrieved governors of the opposition party hold sway.
OsunDaily News reports that Governors Nyesom Wike, Seyi Makinde, Samuel Ortom, Okezie Ikpeazu, and Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Rivers, Oyo, Benue, Abia, and Enugu States respectively had pulled out of the PDP presidential campaign.
The aggrieved governors had insisted on the removal or resignation of the party’s national chairman, Dr. Iyorchia Ayu, before campaigning for Atiku.
According to them, Ayu had promised that he would resign his position if a northerner emerged as the presidential candidate of the PDP.
The main opposition party has been unable to resolve the crisis with both camps engaging in a media war despite several attempts by highly-placed individuals and groups to put an end to the dispute.
With the insistence on Ayu’s ouster, feelers from the Atiku camp indicated that the presidential candidate has mapped out new strategies with which he intends to triumph in the states governed by the aggrieved governors.
Too Late For Plan B
According to The Nation, one of such plan is for the PDP presidential candidate and his party to shift their focus to the three geopolitical zones in the North (North-west, North-east, and North-central).
It was gathered that Atiku and the PDP leadership have concluded plans to engage influential party leaders in each of the affected states to checkmate the governors.
Part of the counter-strategy, it was gathered, is to scramble for 50 percent of the votes in each of the G5 states, with some Atiku strategists out to prevent the rebellious governors from imposing their successors, winning senatorial elections or re-election as in the case of Oyo State.
But a source in Wike’s camp told The Nation that it is too late for the former Vice-president’s Plan B to work.
Investigation revealed that Atiku and PDP opted to move on without the five governors after realizing that some of them are nothing more than “lightweights” in their states.
A source said: “Atiku and PDP have activated Plan B on how to win presidential election in the five states without the governors.
“We have done ward to ward analysis of the voting pattern since 2015, and at a strategy meeting, it was agreed that the five governors can be beaten in their states.
“We concluded that the battle should be taken to Wike and others. Apart from Wike, we rated some of the governors as “weak”.
“The weakness accounted for why the National Chairman of PDP, Dr. Iyorchia Ayu, decided to come out to challenge Governor Samuel Ortom.
“We said if key PDP leaders in each of the five states are engaged, Atiku can win about 50 percent of the votes in the five states.
“Besides Rivers State, the other states are not swing states in any way. They are parasitic states to Rivers.
“We know what is happening. One of the states has just been supplied brand new vehicles for the campaign by one of the five governors.
“The introduction of Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has buoyed the confidence of Atiku and PDP leaders that the five governors are beatable in their terrains.”
According to reports, Atiku and the PDP have shifted their focus to the North and are desperately trying to make inroads into some parts of the North despite the presidential candidate being a Northerner.
The opposition party is worried that most of the states in the North are under the control of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Bauchi Strategy Meeting
In line with Plan B, some PDP leaders including Ayu; Sokoto State Governor and Director-General of the PDP Presidential Campaign Council, Aminu Tambuwal, and former Governor of Jigawa State, Sule Lamido met with the Bauchi State Governor, Senator Bala Mohammed in Bauchi on Saturday.
A source said: “With the South-East gone, the South-South fluid and the South-West a no-go area for PDP, the alternative is to do everything possible to win in the North.
“They are desperate to secure the North or else the election will be a formality for APC.”
