By Olusegun Olanrewaju (Lagos) and Ben Ogbemudia, Abuja
The National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Iyorchia Ayu, came under heavy fireworks yesterday in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, as state Governor, Nyesom Wike, and a former deputy national chairman of the party, Chief Bode George, practically took him to the cleaners.
The occasion was the commissioning of Omerelu Internal roads in the Ikwerre local government area, where the two leaders of the leading opposition party engaged Ayu over Tuesday’s uncharitable comments that those trying to oust him from office are ‘children’.
There, Wike pointedly told the embattled party leader that the N14bn realised from the sale of forms of primaries last May must be judiciously used.
Wike also slammed Ayu for “showing ingratitude and arrogance after he was assisted to get the seat of the national chairmanship” of the party.
According to him, as a result of his intransigence, Ayu doesn’t want the party to win the election, “and he and some party members will help him achieve that goal.”
*’We brought him from the gutters’
Taking swipes at the national chair, Wike said, “Doctor Ayu said we are children. Yes, the children brought you from the gutter to make you chairman.
“Now we have seen that you don’t want the party to win the election, we will help you. These children you said we are, that brought you from nothing.”
Yesterday, the governor, who is spearheading the resolve to oust Ayu from office, said, “We picked Iyorchia Ayu from the gutters, and made him National Chairman. Now he calls us children. Since @OfficialPDPNig doesn’t want to win the 2023 presidential election, we will help them lose.”
“Ayu, you said you founded this party, but you left the party in 2007. You founded a company, you left the company, and people stood and brought out the company to what it is today, you have no moral right to still come and claim that you founded that company, you left with your shares.
“You want to show integrity, you want to show a party to Nigeria that we want to take over, you must convince Nigerians that we have integrity.
“You are the driver that will drive the vehicle to convey us to our destination. That is the victory we are looking for.
Vowing to ‘help the party to lose’, Wike added, “If the driver has no integrity and cannot show honesty, how do you convince Nigerians?
If you tell Nigerians something and cannot do it, is it when you enter into power that you will do it?
“Nigerians have seen how ungrateful some of you can be, and that’s why Nigerians also want to be careful. If we give these people power, are you sure they will also be grateful to Nigerians?”
*Bode George: Ayu must go before 2023 campaign starts
The show of tirade was firmed up by former deputy national chairman of PDP, George, who on the same occasion, described the utterances of the party’s national chairman, as ‘immature’.
George’s condemnation of Ayu’s comments that those calling for his sack over the leadership tussle in the ranks are ‘children’ came as Rivers State governor, Nyesom Wike, also yesterday asked Ayu that he is arrogant and an ingrate.
PDP crisis: Ayu was resurrected from gutters to become chairman – Wike
George, a life member of the Board of Trustees (BoT) of the PDP, said the issue of the chairmanship of the party must be addressed before the 2023 elections.
He aligned with Wike that Ayu vacates the position of the chairmanship of the party for a southerner to occupy the position. “We are not begging for it; we demand it because it is our right,” he said.
He said it is unfair that the PDP chairman; presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar; and PDP Board of Trustees Chairman, Walid Jibrin, are all from the north.
Wike also slammed Ayu for allegedly showing ingratitude and arrogance “after he was assisted to get the seat of the national chairmanship of the party”.
The governor challenged the PDP national chair to show himself as a man of honour and integrity by fulfilling his promise that he would vacate the chairmanship seat if the northern region produces the presidential candidate of the party.
His comment is the latest in the calls for Ayu to quit the party’s chairmanship after former Vice President Atiku Abubakar (from Adamawa State) emerged as the presidential candidate of the PDP in May.
Ayu, who hails from Benue State in northern Nigeria, had last October said he would vacate the chairmanship seat but on Wednesday said he won’t resign.
Earlier, the PDP Board of Trustees (BoT) Chairman, Walid Jibrin, and a northerner from Nasarawa State agreed that it is unfair for the party to have its presidential candidate and national chairman from the same region.
Commenting on the project, Wike said he was sure that Omerelu people are better witnesses that his administration had promised to execute development projects for them and has fulfilled the promise.
Performing the inauguration, George declared that the issue of the National Chairman of PDP must be addressed before the commencement of the campaign for the 2023 general elections.
He said it is an antithesis and against the norm and culture of PDP for the positions of the presidential candidate, national chairman and the chairman of the Board of Trustees to be occupied by persons from one section of the country.
“Party members from the south are already feeling alienated. PDP is not a private company. So, before we start the presidential campaign at the end of this month, the national chairman must go to the south. That is what Governor Wike is saying, and as a life member of the Board of Trustees of our party, I support this position 100 per cent.
“Statutorily, it is the National Chairman who hands over the party’s flag to our presidential candidate. How will party members from the South feel when they see that at all political rallies southerners have no public political representation?”
George maintained that this constitutes a fundamental flaw and lack of inclusiveness, which will be opposed to the original thinking of the founding fathers of the PDP.
He urged party members to be united in their determination to ensure that the PDP returns to the Presidential Villa in Abuja by May 29, 2023.
“But we can only go back to Aso Rock if we are united and not divided. Some people are abusing Governor Wike, he is a troubleshooter. Those abusing him, as an elder and as a father in this party, I am directing them, they must stop immediately.
“Because Governor Wike is only fighting for injustice, for equity, for fairness in our party. He is not only a strong pillar in this party but a mobiliser, a financier, and an actualiser.
“Since he joined the PDP, he has not left this party. I am also a founding father of the party, and since 1998 I have not left this party.”
