PDP Presidential Campaign Council spokesperson, Senator Dino Melaye has threatened G-5 governors from the party who are against the presidential candidate of the party, Atiku Abubakar. Melaye said if they refuse to support Atiku, their political careers would come to an end. This is as the governors of Rivers, Enugu, Abia, Oyo and Benue have openly kicked against the party’s flagbearer for the 2023 presidential election over allegations of injustice. He stated, “No blackmail, hate, or outrageous envy will stop Atiku. I pray it is not true (G-5 governors’ imminent endorsement of their preferred candidate).“Attacking Atiku will cost them their political future. You don’t fight a man who has done nothing to provoke you. Atiku’s only offence is that he won a presidential primary transparently and openly. No man should play God.’’ Sounding confident about the PDP standard bearer’s electoral chances, the former lawmaker said, “It is too late to stop Atiku. They should have a re-think while they can. Atiku will be president because the people have decided.‘’My advice to the G-5 is ‘don’t end your political career because of an inordinate ambition and capricious manifestation that will yield no result.’ If they take that step, it will be the last kick of a dying horse.” Another spokesman of the PDP Campaign Council, Daniel Bwala noted that the 12 million Northern votes the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), often garnered at every election he participated in, are now in the bag for Atiku in 2023.
“If you don’t know, Atiku has inherited the 12m votes of Buhari already. When you add his 8m plus the 12m, Atiku is already coming to the election with 20m votes,” he claimed. He also enumerated several reasons the election is Atiku’s to lose. Bwalla said, “Haven’t you seen that the PDP was the first to inaugurate a campaign council; the first to commence campaign, the leading party in terms of coverage and impact? And we are presently closing in on all the zones.“Have you not been reading the wide acceptance of Atiku across board? Look, no one can kill an idea whose time has come; no one! Need I remind you that the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System for the election is an election of the people over the big man or big men?“Have you not seen that in the All Progressives Congress rallies in Niger, Kaduna and elsewhere that when they chanted Nigeria, the crowd replied sai Atiku? Or is it Peter Obi whose Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Rivers and Lagos rallies put together is not up to half of our (PDP) Katsina rally where the President of APC’s party comes from, that can win this election?”