Ayu: Don’t Ignore Wike’s Demand, Lawyer Tells PDP

An Abuja-based constitutional lawyer, Mr Amobi Nzelu, has advised the national chairman of the Peoples Democratic People (PDP), Dr Iyorchia Ayu, to listen to Governor Nyesom Wike’s demand and bow out of office honourably.

Wike and his camp have repeatedly demanded that Ayu should step down for a southerner because the North where he comes from should not produce the presidential candidate, the national chairman and the director general (DG) of the PDP Presidential Campaign Council. Nzelu told journalists in Abuja that since the PDP members are both from the Northern and Southern parts of the country for equity, justice and good conscience, it is unfair for the presidential candidate, national chairman and him is entrenched in the constitution. He said:

“I support Wike totally on his demand. You can’t have it all. What Wike is demanding is right, legally and morally. In a country of this nature, presidential candidate, National Chairman and the DG, Atiku Presidential Campaign are from the North. What Wike is demanding is very simple; take this and give us this, so that we can be represented on the table for discussion.

There is nothing wrong in what he is asking. So, I support him. I am a lawyer with 42 years of practice and you can’t read the law upside down. The national chairman shouldn’t resign after the elections. Ayu is a professor. Let him bow out and resign now, because he knows that what he is doing is against the law of the PDP. Atiku is expected to talk to him, but he isn’t doing that. Wike isn’t asking for impossibility.

It is only that they don’t want to do it, because they feel that they can do nothing. This is unfair. Remember that the presidential candidacy was zoned to the South and Atiku just came from the backyard and took it. “Now what they are saying is that his having gone to Lagos to endorse Sanwo-Olu for second term is anti-party. It isn’t antiparty because freedom of association is entrenched in our constitution.