Atiku’s camp reportedly pushes for David Mark as next PDP National chairman to call Wike’s bluff 

 

Wike, who was the arrow-head of the rebellion against Atiku and the Ayu-led PDP, recently dared the PDP to expel him.

There are strong indications that former Senate President, David Mark, is being positioned as next National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). 

A report by TheCable indicates that senior politicians in the PDP loyal to the presidential candidate of the party in the last election, Atiku Abubakar, are pushing for David Mark as the next national chairman of the party.

Mark, a retired brigadier general in the army and former minister of communications, is believed to have the capacity to deal with “renegade” party members who are involved in “anti-party activities”.

The ‘renegade’ may likely include elements of the now disbanded G5 who were governors of the party that banded together to oppose Atiku’s presidential election.

The G5 allegedly ensured the removal of Iyorchia Ayu as National Chairman of the party through a court action instituted by party’s officers in Ayu’s ward of Benue State. 

A vocal member of the G5 who was then Governor of Benue State, Samuel Ortom, reportedly ensured that the plot against Ayu succeeded. 

Since the removal of Ayu in March 2023, the party has been without a substantive chairman. 

Umar Ililya Damagum became the acting national chairman but the Atiku camp is reportedly uncomfortable with him as he is seen to be close to Nyesom Wike, former governor of Rivers State and now minister of Federal Capital Territory in the All Progressives Congress (APC) government.

Wike, who was the arrow-head of the rebellion against Atiku and the Ayu-led PDP, recently dared the PDP to expel him.