The Peoples Democratic Party (South-South Chairman), Emmanuel Ogidi, has announced that the party will hold high-level meetings with former presidential candidate Peter Obi and ex-Vice President Atiku Abubakar.
Speaking on Wednesday’s edition of the morning brief on Channels Television, Ogidi emphasised that these consultations are key to restoring the party’s national influence.
“So we’re doing the rounds. We have already seen a former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, and a former President, IBB.
“So, it’s all about seeing those who are important in Nigeria to tell them that we are alive and we’re moving. I know you’re going to ask me about Obi. Yes, we also have plans to see Peter Obi.
“Even Atiku Abubakar, as the former vice president of the country, we are going to meet him. You see, PDP is the real face of democracy in Nigeria,” Ogidi said on the breakfast show.
Obi and Atiku are ex-members of the PDP, and they flew the party’s flag as vice presidential and presidential candidates, respectively, in 2019.
The former vice president was the PDP’s presidential candidate in the 2023 elections. But Atiku and Obi have joined the African Democratic Congress.
On Tuesday, members of the PDP National Working Committee met with ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, who served as the country’s leader under the party.
The group was led by the National Chairman, Tanimu Turaki, and other party chieftains at his Maitama office in Abuja.
Turaki told journalists, “We have his assurance that he remains an active, card-carrying member of the PDP and feels obliged to support the party; the PDP has done enough for him, and he will try his best to do more for the party.”
He said the former president’s remarks were “very reassuring and encouraging as we prepare for off-season elections in Ekiti and Osun, and the 2027 general elections.”
The PDP, the party that ruled Nigeria from 1999 to 2015, has been embroiled in crisis in the wake of the 2023 elections, which it lost to the All Progressives Congress.
At the moment, two groups are laying claims to the leadership of the party at the national level following the party’s convention in Ibadan, Oyo State, where the PDP expelled bigwigs like FCT Minister Nyesom Wike and ex-governor of Ekiti State, Ayo Fayose.
