Ahead of tomorrow’s senatorial primaries of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta State yesterday withdrew from the Delta South Senatorial race. He said his decision is in the interest of peace and security of the state.

The withdrawal, which some observers described as a masterstroke has nipped in the bud what was a panning out as a pitch battle between the governor’s camp and that led by Elder statesman, Chief Edwin Kiagbodo Clark, Senator James Manager and ex-militant; Tompolo.

Saturday Vanguard gathered that Uduaghan dropped his bid after a tripartite reconciliation meeting brokered and hosted by President Goodluck Jonathan between Thursday and yesterday in Abuja.

The truce in Delta came as PDP stalwarts in Rivers including 19 governorship aspirants warned that President Jonathan may lose two million Rivers’ votes in the 2015 election if former Minister of State for Education, Mr Nyesom Wike is imposed as the governorship candidate in the state. Specifically, they threatened to defect to opposition parties if the president and the PDP hierarchy failed to resolve the lingering crisis rocking the party in Rivers.

Meanwhile, less than 24 hours to PDP’s National Assembly primaries, Governor Sullivan Chime of Enugu State appears to have sacrificed the ambitions of his former aides on the altar of the truce he reached with Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu.

Briefing newsmen in Asaba, Uduaghan said he has to offer himself as a sacrifice to sustain the peace and security in the state.

The governor, who aspired to represent Delta South Senatorial District after his second term on May 29, 2015, a move that would have hurt the ambition of serving Senator Manager, said he is quitting because the election is not ‘’do or die” and there has been ethnic tension which seemed to be ‘’threatening peace and security of the state.”

Insisting that he would do everything to stop anything that would threaten the peace and security of the state, he said he came in at a time when the state was being faced with a lot of security issues ‘’but the state is much more peaceful now than I met it”.

He also said his withdrawal would give him the leverage to manage the affairs of the state in the transition period as well as ensure the re-election of President Jonathan.

Uduaghan, however, described Senator James Manager as a friend and brother adding that he was not forced to withdraw from the race.

At the Abuja meeting, sources said the President was touched by Uduaghan’s ‘sacrifice’ and he ‘asked Senator James Manager to work with the Delta State Structure to ensure that the candidate favoured by the majority of PDP stakeholders emerges as the party’s governorship candidate and the party approached the 2015 elections as a united front in Delta.’’

Some members of Chime’s kitchen cabinet, including his Commissioner for Enugu Capital Development Authority had few weeks ago resigned their positions to enable them participate in the PDP National Assembly primaries.

They reportedly had the blessing of the governor to run for the offices of their choice. But following the reported reconciliation of Chime and Ekweremadu, the governor was said to have asked his aides to withdraw from the race. Making their positions known at different forum yesterday that those affected by the development, said they were going ahead to seek the people’s mandate.

One of them, Engr. Ikechukwu Ugwuegede, who prior to the recent development, was known to be Chime’s preferred candidate for the Nsukka/Igbo-Eze South Federal Constituency, said his ambition remained on course.

Ugwuegede resigned as the commissioner for Enugu Capital Territory Development Authority. At a news briefing yesterday, Ugwuegede said: “I want to inform my supporters that my aspiration is still very much on course. We urge our supporters and delegates to remain faithful and assure them that with their support, success and victory will be ours at the polls. Be not dismayed or discouraged by anybody. Ensure that you participate at the PDP primaries taking place at the Government Field Nsukka.”

Threatening to dump the PDP, the party’s stalwarts in Rivers State said if Wike was imposed as the governorship candidate in the forthcoming election, it will cost the party over two million votes from the state.

The concerned Rivers State PDP Stakeholders and 19 governorship aspirants, under the auspices of the Rivers Mainstream Coalition (RMC), said the chances of the party in 2015 depends on how the leadership of the party handles the current crisis in the state.

“If the right thing is done, PDP will fly high. Our options as RMC, which is fighting for justice in Rivers State, are wide depend on what is unfolding,” it said.

Speaking on behalf of the group at a press conference, in Abuja, Prof. Israel Owate said they had no confidence in the National Deputy Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus to resolve the lingering crisis because Secondus had openly aligned himself with the cabal in the state to short change the Rivers’ people.

Owate said; “Secondus has stubbornly and consistently shown open alignment with the ambition of Barr. Nyesom Wike and cannot therefore be trusted to proffer unbiased solutions on Rivers State crisis. There is ample evidence that the imposition of Wike to succeed Governor Amaechi shall cause deep geo-political imbalance, trigger negative reactions from other ethnic groups and threaten the peace, stability and unity of Rivers State including the electoral fortunes of the PDP.

“It is the general view of Rivers people that Wike is so desperate to become governor that he does not bother to evaluate how much damage his stubborn violation of the existing rotation formula can do in polarizing the electorate and weakening the unity required to muster the traditional two million votes in the 2015 elections for Mr President. The impending tragedy can only be averted by ensuring that other ethnic groups in River state are not extremely incensed by the intolerable prospect of being subjugated to the slavery of having another Ikwerre person succeed Governor Amaechi, who is also from Ikwerre.”

The group further called on President Jonathan to prevail on the NWC of the PDP to dissolve the Rivers State Executive Committee and appoint a Care-taker committee to run the party until another Executive committee is elected.