Pours cold water on Jibril’s resignation, insists Ayu must go
Tambuwal quits as Makinde emerges Chairman of PDP Governors
BY TIMOTHY AGBOR
Efforts by stakeholders to find an amicable settlement to the crisis rocking the People’s Democratic Party continues to fall through as Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, on Thursday vehemently doubled down on his insistence that the National Chairman, Iyorchia Ayu, must relinquish the post.
Wike, in apparent response to the news of the resignation of the party’s former Board of Trustees (BoT) chairman, Walid Jibril, argued that his demand was not for the resignation of the BoT chairman, saying “it is not a decision-making body.”
Jibril resigned his post on Thursday, claiming his decision was to ensure that the party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar wins the February 2023 presidential election. He was quickly replaced by former Senate President, Adolphus Wabara in an acting capacity.
However, an unimpressed Wike fumed during the commissioning of the Ahoada Campus of the Rivers State University in the Ahoada East Local Government Area of the state.
“They have today told the BoT chairman to resign. Who is talking about the chairman of BoT? What is the role of the BoT? BoT is an advisory body. We have never zoned BoT. BoT is an advisory body; BoT is not a decision-making body,” he said.
He further argued that “Those who run (the party) as it is today is (sic) the presidential candidate and the chairman of the party. The chairman of the party and the candidate or the President as the case may be is the ones that take decisions.
“The candidate is from the north, the chairman is from the north. Who will represent the south in the decision-making of the party? You have taken the candidate of the party. Yes, we have agreed. You can’t take the two major positions of a party. You cannot,” he emphasized.
The Rivers State helmsman further revealed that Atiku met him after that convention and reiterated the need for Ayu to relinquish the post of national chairmanship of the party.
“When we finished our convention on a Saturday to Sunday, the candidate of the party (Atiku) came to see me in my house in Abuja on Monday around 10:30am…The candidate told me: ‘I want us to work together’ and then he said, ‘Look, Ayu must go’.
“I said why? He said because when a candidate comes from the north, the chairman will come from the south. And I am saying, implement what you told me. What offence have I committed? It has nothing to do with Wike; it has to do with integrity.
“I challenge the presidential candidate to deny this. If he denies this, I will go further to say so many things to Nigerians because enough is enough,” he threatened.
Wike, who was at the occasion alongside his ally, Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, insisted that Jibril’s resignation can never be a solution to the “fight” in the party. “This fight we will fight it to the end,” he said.
“Some of you don’t know what is happening. You are being deceived; they are telling you Wike is causing problems. Wike is not causing problems; Wike is bringing peace to the country. Wike is advocating for justice, Wike is advocating for equity, and Wike is advocating for fairness.
“We have finished with the presidential primary. It is over and it is over. So, when people say, ‘You want to destroy the party because you didn’t win the primary, I think they are sick, they have some mental problems.
“In a contest, there must be a winner, there must be a loser. I have no regrets. We contested the election very well and we are not ashamed,” Wike said.
Meanwhile, after Jubril’s exit, protesters stormed the party secretariat, demanding Ayu’s resignation. The protesting members of the party, who carried placards with various inscriptions, said Ayu’s exit from his position was vital to the anticipated victory of the opposition party in the 2023 general elections.
Some of the inscriptions on the placards displayed by the protesters read, “Ayu Must Go”, “Ayu Must Step Down”, “We Need Justice, and Fairness For All”, “We Don’t Want Northern PDP, We Don’t Want Southern PDP”, “We Have to be United, Not Divided” and “We Don’t Want to Lose Any Election in 2023.”
The Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, in a dramatic fashion, emerged as the new Chairman of Peoples Democratic Party Governors Forum on Thursday.
Makinde emerged as the new chairman a few minutes after the former chairman, Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State resigned from the position on Thursday.
The Oyo state governor clinched the new office at the ongoing PDP National Executive Council Board meeting in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
