In an Ayu-must-go action, Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State and his PDP team withdrew from the campaign council of Alh. Atiku Abubakar, the party’s presidential candidate.
This was revealed in a meeting late on Tuesday at Wike’s country house in Port Harcourt.
The party’s national chairman, Iyorchia Ayu, is under pressure to retire, but party leaders have sworn not to participate in Atiku’s campaigning until Ayu has done so.
Party veterans who support Wike’s vision insisted that Atiku wouldn’t have their support until Ayu gave up the party’s top position to make room for an acting Chairman from the South of the nation.
READ ALSO: A Word For The Wike Group: Leave The Carcass And Stand With Us!
A resolution was delivered by Chief Olabode George, a former Deputy National Chairman of the party, on behalf of the party’s disgruntled veterans, who include the party’s founding members, current governors, former ministers, and other leaders.
George, who read the group’s resolution, stated that despite the PDP’s long-standing internal structure intended to ensure inclusivity, the party’s divisions profoundly troubled them.
“We resolve that we are profoundly disturbed about the rift in our party,” George remarked. We are aware that over the years, our party has created systems for resolving disputes that ensure inclusivity. The list of presidential campaign advisers that has been made public amounts to placing the cart before the horse. The key issue is still the party’s leadership, which has decided that Senator Iyorchia Ayu must step down from her position as national chairman in order for a new acting chairman of Southern Nigerian descent to take office and guide the party through its next election cycle.
Therefore, until Dr. Iyorchia Ayu’s departure, we decide not to take part in the campaign council in any way.
Additionally, Senator Jonah Jang, a former governor of Plateau State, asserted that Ayu was a poor referee who helped one team score a goal during a football game before blowing the whistle.
He said that Ayu’s actions compromised the party’s presidential primaries on May 28 and 29.
READ ALSO: Wike And The Exegesis Of The PDP Crisis
“There was a private arrangement that was done with Tambuwal to shortchange other competitors including Governor Wike,” claimed Jang. “For a National Chairman, Senator Iyorchia Ayu to go and embrace Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tanbuwal, proclaiming him the hero of the convention.
“This referee assisted one of his teams in scoring a goal before blowing the whistle. We didn’t start the PDP to help Nigerians in this way. Therefore, we categorically demand that Ayu resign.
Furthermore, Prof. Jerry Gana, a former minister of information, stated that if the party wanted to reconstruct Nigeria, it should have the guts to do so first.
Wike’s supporters backed him out of concern for the party’s equality and justice, not because he had failed to win the vice presidential nomination or the presidential primary.
You cannot construct on a weak basis, replied Gana. No one among us is upset by this request for the chairman to stand aside or resign; rather, we feel it’s critical to maintain the party’s just, equitable, constitutional, and principled structure. We should have the guts to rebuild our party if we wish to restructure Nigeria.
“We hope that the powers that be heed to the voice of reason and do the essential,” the governor of Oyo State, Seyi Makinde, continued.
