Dr. Iyorchia Ayu, the party’s national chairman, will become a hero if he voluntarily steps down for the cause of peace and the party’s election success, according to the South-West Forum of PDP Stakeholders for Justice.
The PDP experienced a problem after Alhaji Atiku Abubakar was elected as the party’s presidential candidate for the 2023 general elections.
In order to be fair, certain PDP governors and leaders, especially those from southern Nigeria, insisted that northern Nigeria should not be the party’s nominee for president and national chairman at the same time.
Gov. Nyesom Wike of Rivers and other party officials from southern Nigeria are leading the charge in the fight for Ayu’s resignation, who is from the North Central region of Nigeria.
At a meeting with Abubakar with the zone’s stakeholders on September 17, Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State and a few South West PDP leaders also demanded Ayu’s resignation.
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The forum’s coordinators, Messrs. Banji Okunomo and Gani Taofik, jointly issued a statement in Lagos on Thursday endorsing the demands for the party chairman’s resignation.
It claims that the only solution for party peace is the chairman’s resignation.
“We, the above-named forum of the PDP, wishes to affirm our support for the position being canvassed by Makinde, corroborated by the doggedness of the ‘Wikes’ and the wisdom of the ‘Bode Georges’, as a lasting panacea for peace and eventual victory of our party at the 2023 presidential election,” the group said.
The forum said that Ayu should be able to sacrifice for Atiku to win the next election.
“It is our take, that Ayu should indeed go further to logically and wisely conclude the process that will guarantee the emergence of Abubakar as the next president of Nigeria, by making other possible sacrifices necessary to achieve that goal.
“Indeed, this is why and when Ayu himself will be more celebrated as PDP’s hero of democracy rather than clogging the party’s wheel of progress and creating avoidable crisis for the party,” the group said.
It cautioned Abubakar to avoid following the bad advice and irrational suggestions of some party spies.
It claimed that the moles were persistent in voicing thoughts that could endanger the opportunity that God had provided for the PDP in the new regime.
“Nigerians are indeed awaiting the PDP as the actual potent alternative government, and God forbids, if this opportunity skips us, Nigerians may never again associate with the PDP.
“We call for immediate restoration of sanity,confidence, inclusiveness and oneness in the Party as a stitch in time saves nine,” it said.
Recall that on Wednesday, during a meeting in Portharcourt, Rivers, supporters of Wike’s caucus resigned from the Abubakar presidential campaign council, deepening the conflict.
In order to promote balance in the party, the group declared they would not take part in Atiku’s campaign activities unless the party’s national chairman gave up his position for a southerner.
