The Rivers State Merit Award conferred on Governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri of Adamawa state is creating serious ripples in the already fragile relationship between the pro-Fintiri and the pro-Atiku groups within the PDP in the state, and at the national level. Governor Fintiri was on Saturday night given award by Gov. Nyeson Wike of Rivers State along side other governors of the G5 Integrity Group led by Wike against PDP and the Atiku candidacy. Many of Atiku’s kingpins who had been sympathetic to the governor before now have backed out of his support, alleging that he had finally pitched his political tent with Gov. Wike, the virulent opponent of the PDP’s presidential candidate.
A source who claims anonymity disclosed that majority of the pro-Atiku groups in the state have vowed to “pay the governor back in his own coins at the polls for betraying the Waziri”. When asked where then their support will go our source said they have not concluded on who they’ll support yet, waiting for direction from the former Vice President, although the source indicated that most of them are inclined towards supporting Dr. Umar Ardo of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) whom they see as one of them in the Atiku political circle.
When contacted on phone to confirm whether he has been contacted on this development, Dr. Ardo said nobody spoke to him on this, but added that he’s always been part and parcel of the Atiku political family. “Besides, I have always delivered him in our Local Government whether or not we belong to the same political party”, Ardo concluded.
Relationship between Atiku and Fintiri supporters within the PDP has been a running cat and mouse affair as Wike is seen to be actually Fintiri’s political godfather, and not Atiku. Only a while ago, one Amb. AA Lawan Uba was clamped into jail for over a month allegedly at the instance of Gov. Fintiri for having accused the governor in a video interview that went viral of working for Wike during the PDP’s presidential primaries, instead of Atiku. He stated that it was when the unexpected happened and Atiku won the party nomination that the governor quickly beat a retreat back into the Atiku camp. Even though Atiku had raised Fintiri’s hand for re-election, the ripples in the relationship between their supporters in Adamawa have created such schism among them that affairs of the party are no longer at ease.
