Rivers State governor, Nyesom Wike, has described the resolution by the board of trustees (BoT) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) regarding Iyorchia Ayu, the party’s National Chairman, as “ridiculous”.
Recall that Wike and his supporters have been demanding the resignation of Ayu after former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar won the party’s presidential ticket.
The call for Ayu’s resignation is on the grounds that the National Chairman and the presidential candidate of the party cannot be from the same region. However, some members of the party had rejected the call for Ayu to resign, saying the national chairman can only resign after the presidential election in February – if Abubakar wins.
On Friday, the PDP BoT asked Ayu to assure members that he will resign after the 2023 general election. The advice to Ayu was part of the recommendations of the BoT to party members to resolve the crisis in the PDP.
Speaking yesterday at the airport in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, when he returned from Spain, Wike said it is “ridiculous” for the BoT to give such advice. “To say he should make another commitment that he will resign after the elections, for me, the BoT resolution is ridiculous,” he said.
The Rivers governor also spoke on Ayu’s denial that he didn’t receive N100 billion from a presidential hopeful, saying:“Luckily for me, he (Ayu) has now mentioned that he went to the presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, the Waziri of Adamawa, where they discussed the issue of borrowing.
“Now, the question is, when you talk about borrowing, who approves borrowing? You must go to the national working committee (NWC) to say you want to borrow money. I challenge him to bring the records where NWC approved that the party should go and borrow N1 billion. What is the collateral?” the Rivers governor queried.
“As a party, we believe that Nigerians must trust us. We must show leadership and part of that leadership is integrity. You don’t just come and deceive Nigerians that you did not collect N1 billion”, he stated.
