PDP crisis: We’ve moved on – Atiku campaign

… says Tinubu’s return a response to APC’s riot act

… mocks Keyamo

John Alechenu, Abuja

The Peoples Democratic Party Presidential Campaign Council, has said it has moved on from the internal wrangling within the party.

Spokesman for the Atiku Abubakar Presidential Campaign, Mr. Daniel Bwala, said this in an interview he granted to Arise Television, on Friday.

Bwala explained that the National Working Committee as well as the National Executive Committee of the party have held meeting where decisions were taken and a vote of confidence passed on the Sen. Iyiochia Ayu-led NWC and that those saddled with the responsibility of meeting with WIke have been doing so.

He said, “The PDP has moved on. We’ve released the list of our campaign council, we have inaugurated them, we have participated in the signing of the peace accord, we have in fact, commenced our campaign.

“We will be happy to engage with the Nigerian people on matters that are ahead of us. We have gone past the issues of whether somebody is aggrieved in the party. “

Bwala expressed confidence that the Board of Trustees which is the latest of the party organs engaging with Wike and his group will continue to do so until total confidence is rebuilt.

According to him, the fact that the Presidential candidate has held stakeholders engagements with the South East, South West  and the North East which were well  received was a pointer to the fact that progress was being made.

He also referred to a meeting between his principal and Wike a forthright ago as a good sign.

Bwala used the occasion to accuse the All Progressives Congress of lagging behind.

He said the return of the Presidential Candidate of the party, Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu from London was a response to the “riot act” read to him by the party’s National Chairman, Sen. Abdullahi Adamu.

Bwala said the APC candidate hurried back into the country after Adamu made it known that under his watch the party will be supreme.

In a veiled reference to the leaked letter of protest written by the Adamu-led APC National Working Committee over the release of a list of members of the APC Presidential Campaign Council , Bwala noted that the candidate and his handlers got the message.

Bwala also took on one of his professional colleagues and Spokespersons for the APC Campaign, Festus Keyamo, SAN whom he said does not enjoy access to Tinubu, his principal.

The absence of Tinubu, who just returned to Nigeria after close to two weeks in London, has been a subject of political debate. The APC candidate wasn’t around to sign the conventional peace pact by Presidential candidates.

While mocking Keyamo, Bwala said, “Two days ago, spokesman for APC was asked where is your principal Tinubu?

“He said he doesn’t know where the principal is. But they said but you are the spokesman, he said yes and they said you are the spokesman and you are supposed to speak for him. He said, honestly I don’t know but what I know is that he will come back.

“Then the next day in the morning, he appeared on your show and he was also interrogated but they were not straightforward with the Nigerian people,” the Atiku campaign spokesman said after the return home of Tinubu on Friday morning.

“At any given time when you call me, where is Atiku Abubakar, I will tell you where he is. If I call Atiku Abubakar, he answers. If he is busy he responds one way or the other.

“ But the spokesman of the other party came here and you asked whether he has spoken with the man and he said no, that the son said that papa is sleeping.

“So, it is ether there is no confidence in the spokesman himself or that what they are doing is shrouded in secrecy and you know that Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu came back because the day prior, the national chairman of the party appeared in the meeting at the campaign headquarters.

“And rather than having a negotiated meeting, he read the riot act to them about the supremacy of the party and the decision the party will take if they don’t concede to their idea of harmonizing the list and Asiwaju had to return home. So, this is the reason why he returned,”