The national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Iyiochia Ayu, has described as mere noise calls for his resignation, saying the proponents of his removal from office are children who were not available when the party was founded.
Senator Ayu who featured on a BBC Hausa Service programme monitored in Kaduna, also disclosed that the presidential candidacy of Atiku Abubakar does not in any way affect him as the national chairman of the PDP, stressing that, even if the presidential candidate had come from his native Benue State.
He insisted that he contested for office of national chairman and won a four-year term in office, saying that he was yet to spend even a year in office.
“I stood for election and I won the election and I am fixing the party, I have not stolen anything, I have not committed any offence, we will not allow one person to come and spoil the party for us with frivolous calls and conditions.
“I was elected as PDP national chairman for a four-year term and I have spent up to one year, so the call for my resignation is uncalled for. The election of Abubakar Atiku as the PDP presidential candidate cannot affect my election as national chairman, even if the candidate is from Benue state, I stood for election and I was voted for me by Nigerians,” Ayu said.
When asked about condition put forward by the Rivers State governor, Ezenwo Nyesom Wike’s camp for his resignation among others, Ayu said, “All that he is doing does not affect me because I know I am fixing the party, I am doing my work diligently, I have not committed any offence, I have not stolen any money, so there is no reason for my resignation. When we started the PDP all those ones were children, they were not there, we will not allow one person to become a spoiler, this is our country, so all that is expected of us is to fix the country, provide security and dividends of democracy when we take over power in 2023.”
On the return of a former Kano State governor, Senator Ibrahim Shekarau, to PDP, the party’s national chairman said, “Ibrahim Shakarau’s return to PDP is a welcome development, he is a straight forward person, he left his party to come to our party because he knows PDP is the one that will fix the country. Both Senator Shekarau that have returned and his men will be accommodated in the party’s activities in the State accordingly because they are all PDP men and women now.”
Recall that PDP has been facing internal crisis following the choice of the Delta State governor, Ifeanyi Okowa, as the running mate to the party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, a development the Wike camp considers offensive.
