Surprised at the outburst of presidential candidate Atiku over the demand by the Wike camp for Ayu’s sack as a prelude to peace and reconciliation in the PDP, a party chieftain and member of BoT, Bode George, yesterday described the response to calls for the removal of tAyu as disheartening.

Speaking during an interview on Arise Television’s News Day programme, the elder statesman, George said, “Let’s do what is right, let’s do what is just. All of us cannot sleep and face the same direction. I am talking because we are deviating from the norm and the cause of our founding fathers.”

He added, “It is not a personal thing for me, and it will never be. This is not a personal emotional issue. This is about doing things right. Let’s follow the culture and the norms of our founding fathers so that we can convince the people that we can build the country.”

George must have taken the position because of Atiku’s restated position that he cannot effect a forceful resignation of Ayu as the party’s national chairman.

This was after Rivers State governor, Nyesom Wike, and his team in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the Ayu-must-go move pulled out of the campaign council of Atiku.

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*Tell Ayu to resign now, Abia PDP tells Atiku

The crisis in the party, especially the presidential council boycott, resonated hard yesterday, in faraway Abia State, where the state chapter minced no words that Atiku must ensure that Ayu resigns immediately to give confidence to people of the South-East, whom they alleged, had been marginalised in leadership.

The acting Publicity Secretary and Zonal Vice-Chairman, Abia North, of the party in the state, Abraham Amah, said Ayu’s resignation had become necessary to end the lingering feud in the party.

It added, “This call has become necessary because of recent happenings in our party, including the pulling out from the Atiku Abubakar Campaign Organisation by Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State and some of his acolytes, as this would only serve to destroy the legacies erected by the founding fathers of our party, and also leave us vulnerable before our opponents.”

Abia PDP which, however, restated support for Atiku’s presidential bid, argued that justice and equity demanded that positions in the PDP should not be lopsided.

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*Ayu’ll become hero if he resigns, says forum

Meanwhile, a group, South-West Forum of PDP Stakeholders for Justice, yesterday said the party’s national chairman, Iyorchia Ayu, “will become a hero if he voluntarily resigns in the interest of peace and electoral victory for the party.”

Also, Oyo State governor, Seyi Makinde, and some South-West PDP leaders, on September 17, called for Ayu’s resignation at the zone’s stakeholders’ meeting with Abubakar.

In a statement jointly signed by the coordinators of the forum, Banji Okunomo and Gani Taofik in Lagos yesterday, the group threw its weight behind the calls for the resignation of the party’s chairman.

According to it, the resignation of the chairman is the only panacea for peace in the party.

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*They are not being fair to Atiku –Dele Momodu

However, some ray of hope came the way of Ayu yesterday. One of the party’s chieftains and a former presidential candidate, Dele Momodu, has said that Atiku, as a presidential standard bearer, cannot unilaterally remove the party’s national chairman, Iyorchia Ayu.

A veteran journalist and publisher of Ovation Magazine, Momodu, made this assertion yesterday while speaking during an interview on Arise Television’s The Morning Show.

He said, “My own worry is that we seem to be putting so much pressure on Alhaji Atiku Abubakar as he can unilaterally remove the chairman of the party.

“Even if he (Atiku) should do that, a lot of us will feel vilified. He cannot do it (remove Ayu) and all he can do is speak with Dr Ayu, and we don’t know what is going on between all of them.”

Momodu said those calling on Atiku to unilaterally remove the party’s embattled chairman was being unfair to the former vice president.