By Babs Oyetoro and Olusegun Olanrewaju
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, yesterday said efforts were ongoing to appease the section of the party displeased over his bypass of Nyesom Wike in choosing his running mate.

Responding to accusations aired by Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, and a former governor of Ekiti State, Ayo Fayose, Atiku yesterday broke his silence on volatile issues raised by the duo.

He spoke of his resolve to unify Nigeria as a conscious process to unify the party, adding that efforts were already ongoing in that direction.

Discord had already reared its ugly head in PDP ranks with an open rebellion against National Chairman, Senator Iyiorcha Ayu, over tendencies that threw up Atiku as the presidential candidate of the opposition party over the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike.

The situation was further compounded by a crisis in leadership with the majority of the party’s governors absenting themselves from the inauguration of the Osun State Campaign Committee.

Ortom and Fayose had on Wednesday ruffled feathers when they voiced their disappointment at Atiku’s decision to pick Delta State Governor, Ifeanyi Okowa, instead of his Rivers State counterpart, Wike, as his running mate.

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While Ortom, who spoke in an interview with Arise Television, said he was still praying and waiting for God to direct him as to whether or not to support Atiku in the 2023 elections, Fayose said it was time for a southerner to emerge as president after President Muhammadu Buhari’s tenure elapses in 2023.

There have also been snide remarks calling for the resignation of Ayu as national chairman.

In the wake of opposition against his candidacy from within the party’s ranks, Atiku yesterday took some time off to react to developments in the national leadership of the main opposition party on his verified Twitter handle.

Sounding reconciliatory, he said, among others, “The Peoples Democratic Party will remain united. Focus on our actions. We are taking action to address the feelings of all party members. The unity in our community is my priority. Our resolve to unify Nigeria starts in our party and moves to the community, then on to society.

“Every governor, legislator, and other elected officials produced by our party, and party members and loyalists, are much loved and respected by me. When they speak, I listen. I do not only listen. Appropriate actions have been taken, are being taken, and will continue to be advanced,” he tweeted yesterday.

Atiku, a former vice president, however, did not elaborate on the efforts or gestures that were being taken to appease Wike and his friends.

•Overtures on Rivers gov, not enough -Ortom

But reacting to the claims that the Wike’s camp was already being appeased, Ortom yesterday on a Channels Television programme expressed deep reservations about what he called the shoddy manner the party’s standard-bearer, Atiku, and the leadership handled the fallout of the process of picking the vice-presidential candidate.

Ortom said he believed that the party’s leadership did not make enough entreaties to the aggrieved members of the party, who had overwhelmingly supported Wike for the position of the vice-president among the list of three governors given to the screening/vetting committee.

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“I think the former vice-president, Atiku did not make enough overtures to Governor Wike and some of the party leaders who are with the Rivers State governor,” Ortom said

The Benue governor recalled that it was an effort in futility by the 17-man committee set up by the party to choose the running mate for the party flag bearer since the presidential candidate had already made up his mind on who will run the race with him.

“This is my grouse; why set up the 17-man committee since you have your preference for a particular person? I don’t begrudge the (former) vice-president for picking Governor Ifeanyi Okowa because he has the prerogative to do that.

“Honestly, the three of them are qualified, but Wike is eminently qualified, and that was vindicated in the voting pattern, as 14 members of the committee voted for Wike, while Okowa had only three votes.

“And we made a recommendation to the former vice-president in order of preference”, Ortom expressed his disappointment.”

He, however, advocated for genuine reconciliation in a bid to heal the wound of disappointment engendered by the shoddy manner the entire process was handled.

“For me, I am confused now about politics in Nigeria…I am in hibernation at the moment”, he re-echoed.