VP slot: PDP tips hand towards Wike; Tinubu yet to decide

Post created on 10:06 am

If what transpired at the meeting of the Peoples Democratic Party Selection Committee, saddled with the responsibility of recommending a running mate for its presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, is anything to go by, Rivers State governor, Nyesom Wike, will be picked as the party’s vice-presidential candidate.

The committee, according to party sources, recommended the Rivers State governor after 13 of 17 members, who attended the meeting at the PDP National Secretariat, yesterday, voted in favour of Wike, three voted for others, while the chairman who can only vote when there is a tie did not vote.

The source said: “The panel initially trimmed the list to three — Nyesom Wike, Ifeanyi Okowa, and Udom Emmanuel. When the names were subjected to further scrutiny and put to vote, 16 out of 19 voted in Wike’s favour. With his track record of loyalty to the party and performance at our just-concluded presidential primaries, most of us felt this is the right thing to do.”

Sources say the party equally took a cue from the United States where “Joe Biden picked Kamala Harris as running mate after he defeated her in the Democratic Party presidential primary in a bid to unite the party.”

Wike scored 237 against the 371 delegate votes at the PDP presidential primary secured by Atiku, who won the nomination.

Meanwhile at the ruling party, Governor Hope Uzodimma of Imo State, on Tuesday, after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja, told journalists that the All Progressives Congress, APC, presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, will decide who his running mate would be.

Meanwhile, the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria has warned the APC against fielding a Muslim-Muslim ticket, saying it would not augur well for peace and unity in the country.