2023: Ayu rebuffs Wike’s call, insists he won’t resign as PDP national chairman
The Peoples Democratic Party National Chairman, Iyiochia Ayu, on Monday refuted claims that he was resigning from office.
Ayu said he was elected for four years as National Chairman of the PDP and, consequently, he has no plan to resign, but serve his term of office.
Ayu’s position would appear to have put paid to the call for him to resign because of the zoning formula of the party, a campaign led by Governor Nyesome Wike of Rivers State group.
Indeed, the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, and aggrieved party members sympathetic to Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike would want to see how they can resolve the crisis rocking the party since Atiku picked Delta State Governor Ifeanyi Okowa ahead of Wike.
Consequently, there has been growing tension in the party that Ayu may be dropped as the party chairman to placate Wike and his group, who are insisting that the North cannot be the presidential candidate as well as the chairman of the party.
However, a tweet by Ayu’s Media Aide, Simon Imobo-Tswam, on Monday said, “The PDP National Chairman, Dr. Iyiochia Ayu, has not resigned and has no plan of resigning.
“For clarity and emphasis, he was elected for a tenure of four years.”
This is coming as an elder statesman and one of the founding members of the PDP, Senator Anietie Okon has said that the only solution to the crisis in the PDP is to allow Wike to become the national chairman of the party,
Okon, who spoke in an interview in Uyo said, “The PDP should give governor Wike national Chairman position to placate him. That is the only solution to the crisis in the party. I know Wike has the capacity, he has what it takes to strengthen the party ahead of the 2023 elections.”
