Nyesom Wike, governor of Rivers, says Iyorchia Ayu, national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), must resign before the 2023 presidential election.
The Rivers governor said it will be “foolish” to expect Ayu to resign after the general election.
According to a statement issued on Thursday by Kelvin Ebiri, Wike’s special adviser on media, the governor said this on Wednesday when he hosted Cross River PDP candidates running for governorship, senatorial, house of representatives, and state house of assembly seats in the 2023 elections.
Wike said he remains resolute in his demand for the resignation of the party’s national chairman.
We had reported how Wike’s allies withdrew from the PDP presidential campaign council amid the call for Ayu’s resignation.
The call for Ayu’s resignation is said to be on the grounds that the national chairman and the presidential candidate of the party cannot be from the same region.
But 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 Atiku Abubakar, the PDP presidential candidate, wins.
Speaking on Wednesday, Wike said he will not back down on his demand until Ayu cedes his position to the south.
“He (national chairman) said, if the presidential candidate comes from the north, he will resign, which means he has had this in mind. Now, the thing has come to reality. Now resign, ‘no’. And people are saying ‘go and talk to Wike’,” the governor was quoted as saying.
“I’ve accepted the presidential candidate. I have accepted the vice-presidential candidate. What’s the problem again? You, fulfil your part.
“Let the south have something; that is all I’m preaching. You cannot have presidential candidate, national chairman, director-general of the campaign.
This is the period the power game is being played. If you don’t have it now, forget it. If anybody tells you to let (Iyorchia) Ayu resign after the election is conducted, then you are a foolish person.
“This is the time decision is being made. This is the time the presidential candidate, national chairman, and the leader of the campaign will sit. When the election is won in February before the president is sworn in, decisions would have been made.”
