The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, has said he is not worried over who Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike and other members of his camp support as he has moved on even with the crisis being unresolved. Atiku insisted that although the sticky point of the resignation of the Party’s National Chairman, Iyorchia Ayu, remains, he no longer has time to waste towards resolution
The former Vice President had earlier said even though he supported the call for Ayu’s resignation, the timing was wrong as it could upset the set up already in place to properly manage the presidential election.
Atiku, who was in the US with top members of his campaign team, spoke in an interview with the VOA Hausa during the visit.
The PDP presidential candidate said, “We are yet to resolve the matter. But we have moved on, I don’t have any worries about that anymore.”
Wike has been leading five governors in their protest against Ayu insisting they can only join the PDP presidential campaign to support Atiku if Ayu steps down.
Other members of the anti-Ayu group are Seyi Makinde of Oyo, who has publicly endorsed Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the 2023 Presidential election, Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, Abia State Governor, Okozie Ikpeazu and Enugu State Governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi.
Atiku added that “at this junction it’s improper to talk about leadership change in the party while elections are fast approaching.”
On the issue of insecurity, the former Vice president said, “We would confront this issue by convoking a constitutional review so that states and local governments, to whom we intend to give the imprimatur to run their security affairs, would be able to do so. But this requires a rejig of the constitution.
“Before we embark on this, we intend to employ more boots on ground, especially in the area of policing and civil defence, all of which we want to equip properly,” added.
According to him, if elected he will work very closely with the judiciary in order to impose death penalty for terrorism-related offences