Tobi Adebayo
An old video of the Peoples Democratic Party Chairman (PDP), Iyorchia Ayu, promising to step down if the party’s presidential candidate emerges from the North, has surfaced online.
ThisNigeria reported that Ayu, in a statement issued by his Special Adviser on Media and Communication, Simon Imobo-Tswana on Monday, said that he had no plan to resign despite calls from some members of the PDP.
The statement read in part “We restate, therefore, that the PDP National Chairman has not resigned and has no plan of resigning. For clarity and emphasis, he was elected for a tenure of four years.
“Sections 45 and 47 of the PDP Constitution are clear on the removal and/or resignation of the National Chairman.”
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But in the old interview with Arise TV, Ayu had said he would resign as PDP chairman if the party’s presidential candidate emerged from the Northern part of the country “in order to ensure geopolitical balance within the party’s structure.”
Atiku Abubakar from Adamawa, a state in the North-East geopolitical zone, is the PDP flagbearer for the 2023 presidential election.
“I am a very democratic person. I would do anything to promote the image and the interest of my party. If the PDP says I should step down after its presidential candidate emerges from the North, I would gladly step down because what we want is to run the government in the interest of Nigerians. I will sacrifice anything to ensure my party wins,” Ayu had said.
