PDP: Ayu blows hot, says demands on him to resign childish – Nexus News
The crisis rocking the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, deepened yesterday as the party’s National Chairman, Senator Iyorchia Ayu, yesterday, declined requests for his resignation from office by Wike and members of his camp, asking where they were when he and other Nigerians established the party.
Both the PDP presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State have been involved in a feud over moves to remove the party’s national chairman.
Though a reconciliation team was formed by the two leaders, the committee is yet to reach an agreement on the way out of the crisis.
But following the mixed signals arising from the Rivers governor over the crisis in the party, a PDP leader noted that attacks on Atiku and the party were intentional.
This came on a day the PDP boasted that the exodus of members of the All Progressives Congress, APC, into its party is evidence of APC’s upcoming collapse.
Meanwhile, a former presidential aide, Dr Doyin Okupe, yesterday, debunked insinuations that the presidential candidate of Labor Party, Peter Obi and the PDP candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar had entered a deal to work together for the 2023 general elections.
Speaking in an interview with Journalist in Abuja yesterday, Ayu, in a veiled reference to Governor Wike, announced that party leaders have worked so hard to a point where they cannot allow an individual to destroy all they had worked for.
His words: “I was elected to lead the PDP for a four-year term, I have not even spent one year. The election of Atiku as a presidential candidate has nothing to do with the position of national chairman. I won an election as prescribed by our party’s constitution.
“I did not commit any crime, I’m only bringing in positive reforms to the party, and honestly I’m not bothered by the noise.
“I know I’m working, I have not stolen any money, I have not committed any offence because of this. I don’t know what all that talk is about.”
In reaction to a question as to whether or not the yet-to-be resolved feud with Governor Wike will affect the electoral fortunes of the party in 2023, Ayu said: “We founded the PDP in Nigeria. So, some children/kids, who have no inkling about the struggle, cannot become a problem.
“When we started the PDP, we did not see these children/kids, they didn’t know why we founded this party. We will not allow an individual to come and destroy our party.”
Meanwhile a source, who is a member of the Board of Trustees, BoT, emphasized that the party’s national chairman must be ousted for peace to reign, noting that the South-West is behind Wike.
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The PDP leader, who spoke in confidence, said: “Wike knows what he is doing.
These people (Atiku’s camp) know what they are doing, they have insulted us. Some of us are the ones holding the party together and preventing it from disintegration. For peace to reign, the zoning committee met and resolved that the contest should be thrown open then for all aspirants to contest.
“Now, the North has the presidential candidate, they have Board of Trustees, PDP Governors’ Forum and National Chairman but the South has nothing. What we want is for Ayu to resign so that the South can produce the chairman and then have a sense of belonging.
“Atiku and Ayu are refusing that which shows that these people are the same; they are turning the PDP into a northern party. If we fail to do the needful, this will be the beginning of that break-up. Some of us will go home with dignity and we will not succumb to what they are doing.
“They say people are defecting in Katsina and Kano states to the PDP; it is because they have the candidate to show for it. What do we have in the South-West? Ayu is insisting that he won’t resign until after the election but we have alternatives. Ayu’s continued stay will kill the PDP and I don’t know where his loyalty is.”
On what will calm tension in the party, the PDP leader reiterated that Ayu’s resignation will lead to peace and ensure there is a sense of belonging within the party.
He said: “What can lead to peace is for Ayu to resign and tell the South-West to bring a candidate for the chairmanship. All Ayu is saying he won’t resign but Atiku knows the truth and he must do what is right.
“We must give our people a sense of belonging. Most of us in the South-West are behind Wike because what he is saying is in our interest. What we are asking for is to convince our people in South West that they are part of the leadership of the party.”
