Moves to resolve the crisis rocking the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) may not be yielding the desired results as some party leaders have slammed their presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, for failing to do enough to appease aggrieved members.
Tracknews reports that the main opposition plunged into crisis after Atiku failed to follow the recommendations of a PDP committee to pick Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State as his running mate instead of settling for Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State.
While some leaders have berated Atiku for not reaching out to the aggrieved members directly, others are calling for the resignation of the party’s National Chairman, Iyorchia Ayu, before the campaigns start.
Multiple sources in the PDP have revealed that senior party leaders had launched an effort to restore peace within to save the party from imploding, slamming Atiku for not leading reconciliation moves.
The BoT member of the PDP told Tracknews Nigeria : “As we know, the agitation for power shift has closed and what happened at the convention was a disaster.
“Having said that, it is now the responsibility of the new leader of the party to take the gauntlet and lead the move for reconciliation. “Reconciliation should not be done through a third party. That is why some of us who love the party have been meeting and calling for calm.
“All the vituperations they are firing up and down in anger will not help the party. We are not yet in the Villa, we are still in the opposition, and that is why he (Atiku) should take the gauntlet and lead the team for serious reconciliation”.
The BoT insisted that the PDP National Chairman must resign from his position for peace to reign.
The BoT member said: “Ayu should not lead this reconciliation. Ayu, as a person, should leave because once the presidential candidate emerges from one side of the country, the Chairman must come from the other zone.
“Ayu should pack his things and go. He should not say he will go it after the 2023 elections. For him to say that he will go after elections shows he is rubbing salt upon injury.
“How does he want to go to the South and campaign? What are we going to tell the people of the South? The candidate is from the North, the Chairman is also from the North, while the BoT Chairman is from the North. Has that ever been the face of the party? Why are they struggling to destroy the party?
“Everybody must be carried along because the PDP is not the private company of anybody. We need to sit and solve the problems of this country.”
