Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, has again accused the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Iyorchia Ayu, of collecting N100m from a governor.
The Rivers State governor made the allegation during a media chat on Friday in Port Harcourt where he also threatened to reveal more “if pushed to the wall”.
He had earlier in another media chat sometime ago, alleged that Ayu collected 1 billion naira from a Lagos presidential aspirant.
“Let me also tell you, Ayu collected N100m from a governor,” he stated, insisting that the PDP charman cannot deny the allegation.
“I am telling you of a governor. Let him (Ayu) say no that it was not true and I will tell you the governor. These are things people don’t know,” Wike added.
“If not for the love of this party, if we release what we have, Ayu’s children will tell him that ‘You are no longer our daddy’,” Wike declared.
According to Wike, he is not afraid of the party’s chairman, saying Ayu cannot influence the people of Rivers State on whom to vote for in next year’s general election.
“He does not have the capacity to do that,” he said. “So, why I am going to be afraid of him?”
Wike maintained that Ayu should resign his position as the chairman of the PDP, claiming the party chieftain made the pledge that he would do so if the presidential candidate comes from the north (same region as Ayu).
“We have not done primary and a man came out and said if the presidential candidate comes from my region, I will leave. Honour it. It is integrity and part of the hallmark of leadership,” he noted.
“If he cannot do that, how can you tell Nigerians that anything the PDP tells you, we would do it?”
Wike’s remark is the latest in the crisis that has continued to rock the PDP following the party’s presidential primary back on May 28 in Abuja. The governor lost to Atiku Abubakar but claimed the exercise was unfair.
The party then set up a committee to come up with the name of a suitable candidate for the position of vice president. The Governor Samuel Ortom led committee recommended Wike, but the candidate of the party, Atiku Abubakar, overlooked him and settled for Delta State Governor, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, a development that further polarized the party.
Sundry efforts have been made to settle the crisis without much success as Wike and his group of about four other serving governors of the party have held tenaciously to their demand that Ayu must resign his position as National Chairman of the party.
