The Presidential Campaign Council of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Rivers State says the G5 group has collapsed and Governor Nyesom Wike is now on his own.
The spokesperson of the council, Leloonu Nwibubasa stated this in a recent interview.
According to Nwibubasa, there is nothing like G5 again and Wike is only playing mind games by insisting there is an existence of any G5 or integrity group.
It would be recalled that the G5, also known as the Integrity Group, includes Governor Nyesom Wike (Rivers), Governor Samuel Ortom (Benue), Governor Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia), Governor Seyi Makinde (Oyo), and Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Enugu).
The aggrieved governors have been at loggerheads with the PDP national leadership and have vowed to boycott the party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar except Iyorchia Ayu resigns his position as the party’s National Chairman and is replaced by a southerner.
But the Rivers State PDP presidential campaign spokesperson in a recent interview with Punch said the other Governors have all dumped Wike and the Rivers Governor is now alone.
Nwibubasa maintained that the Governors and other leaders of the integrity group are now back in the PDP mainstream and campaigning for Atiku.
In his words, “I have said this before and I will reiterate it; there is no G-5. What we have now is one G.
“The G-5 as mentioned frequently by Governor Wike is a mind game. He wants to keep people around him believing that he has support from the so-called G-5 or Integrity Group.
“You are aware that Jonah Jang (former Governor of Plateau State) was one of the leaders of the group. Today, Jonah Jang works with Atiku Abubakar. He has made it very open that Plateau will vote five over five.
“As of today, his other colleague governors are campaigning in their states and they are saying people should vote for Atiku Abubakar.
“In Abia or Enugu state, have you heard them campaigning for any other candidate apart from Atiku Abubakar? Go and find out. You will not even hear it in Benue State where Governor Samuel Ortom said “my preference would have been for the people to vote for Peter Obi if I were not a member of the PDP”.
When Wike keeps saying “I have the G-5,” it is a mind game. I want to say clearly to the people that there is no G-5. What we have is a one G.”
Asked further if Atiku would not appease the G5 Governors to brighten his chances at the 2023 polls, Nwibubasa insisted that the G5 has crashed.
He however added that Atiku is reaching out to aggrieved persons within the party.
“As I said, there is no Integrity Group. G-5 has collapsed, and Jonah Jang is back with us. So many other members of the earlier taunted G-5 and the Integrity Group are back in the mainstream. And so we don’t see a situation where a house that is not standing will now stand against the majority of the party and make us have issues with our chances of winning the election.
“Again, talking about appeasement, we have a presidential candidate who is a unifier, and I can tell you that even though Atiku talks less, he is reaching out to people and he will continue to reach out even till the eve of the election,” he submitted.
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