Following the unresolved crisis rocking the party, it has been reliably gathered that Governor Wike and some of his allies are pushing for former Ondo governor, Dr Mimikop, as Ayu’s replacement.
It was, however, gathered that some PDP governors and leaders, who are sympathetic to Wike’s cause may not be aware of the latter’s plan to push Mimiko forward as Ayu’s replacement.
A source, privy to the subtle move, said that “Not all those sympathetic to Wike’s cause know what he has up his sleeves but because they have been with him, some of his people are finding it difficult to abandon him.
“Some of them are weighing the possible consequence, part of which is Wike’s perchance for revealing it all and causing maximum damage, some of them are in a quandary.”
‘Atiku won’t do anything unconstitutional’
An ally of Atiku faulted Wike’s push for Ayu’s removal, insisting that the candidate and other PDP leaders would not do anything that is unconstitutional.
He said: “Atiku and leaders of the PDP will never do anything unconstitutional because of Wike because Nigerians are watching. He will keep pushing and even after getting what he wants, he will ask for something else. We know his game.
“There must be a stop to this and that is why we want to move on with his people.
“Those insisting that Ayu must resign are overlooking the constitution which states that his replacement must come from the North. They say it doesn’t matter. But the ripple effect would be too damning because you cannot then insist that the replacement from the North should resign, and then it will affect the national secretary, and down the line.”
Another source said that some of those with Wike was already looking at how they can avoid “becoming collateral victims of somebody else’s war.”
The source noted that some PDP governors sympathetic to Wike’s cause “are already piping down and are willing to work to Atiku and the party.”