G-5 Integrity Group meeting ends in Lagos as G-5 Governors meet Bode George, other PDP leaders
The Peoples Democratic Party’s G-5 group of Governors have ended their meeting with some former Governors and leaders of the party in Lagos with the decision on where the group stands on the 2023 election still unknown.
Some stakeholders within the PDP, known as the integrity group, who have not shown any sign of backing down despite several interventions by party leaders met behind closed doors at the Southern Sun Hotel on Lagos Island.
The G5 group, led by the Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike moved from the Rivers State PDP campaign flag-off in Port Harcourt to Lagos for the meeting.
They were accompanied by former Governors of Ondo, Ekiti, Cross River, and Plateau States.
The meeting lasted for about 3 hours but failed to reach a decision on the next line of action and declaration of who to support as a Presidential Candidate in the 2023 elections.
Former Plateau State Governor, Jonah Jang, who briefed newsmen after the meeting said no decision has been made yet on who the group now knwn as the Integrity Group will support in the 2023 Presidential election.
This silence signifies that the crisis rocking the People’s Democratic Party, PDP is far from over as keen political watchers stress that action of the integrity group might affect the fortune of the opposition party in the coming elections.
The G-5 Governors as well met with the former Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Chief Olabode George.
The meeting by the Governors with Chief Bode George, one of the first set of elected leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party after the 1998/1999 elections which ushered in the current Democratic dispensation is according to sources to decide on where the governors will swing their support.
Earlier, the governors had through the governor of Rivers State, Governor Nyesom Wike, disclosed on Saturday that they will not be supporting the Presidential Candidate of the Party, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar who they have had a running battle since his emergence.
The meeting was attended by Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State, Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, Governor Ifeanyi of Enugu State and Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State with Governor Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State absent.
Other former Governors of the Peoples Democratic Party from Plateau State, Jonah Jang, Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose, Ondo Olusegun Mimiko and Cross River, Donald Duke, and some Other leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party in attendance.
The G-5 Group of Governors has been at loggerheads with the Presidential Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party and the National Chairman, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, and Dr Iyorchia Ayu over what they said was a lack of transparency, integrity, and failed promises.
Their grouse with him was over the manner of his emergence and what some of the governors have said are broken promises and lack of integrity, especially on the part of the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Dr Iyorchia Ayu.
Dr Ayu had promised to resign his position as the party’s National Chairman if a Northerner emerges as the Party’s Presidential candidate a promise he has so far refused to keep.
The issues came to a head following the intrigues before, during, and after the Presidential Primary of the Peoples Democratic Party earlier in the year.