October 30, (THEWILL) – Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, on Saturday, said the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Iyorchia Ayu, lacks the power to stop any candidate of the party from contesting the 2023 general elections.
Wike spoke on Sunday, in Port Harcourt, in reaction to a recent comment by Ayu.
THEWILL reported that the PDP National Chairman had on Friday, said that those pushing for his removal from office will not succeed, saying he will leave the seat on a day that the Almighty God himself permits.
Ayu also said he had the power to stop some candidates in Benue State, from prosecuting their aspirations into various political offices, but chose to be silent, to avoid a crack in the party.
However, Wike described such boast by Ayu as evidence of arrogance and impunity because the threat, empty as it is, was directed at the Benue State governor, Samuel Ortom, who is his benefactor and guarantor when he contested for the party’s national chairmanship position.
“That also tells you the impunity, I heard when he said he would have stopped (Gov) Ortom from running. You see how ungrateful humans are. This was the same (his) governor Ortom who pleaded with us and said he can take this risk and let him become the national chairman.
“This is a man who never campaigned anywhere. This is a man who never printed any posters even when they gave him money to print posters. Now, he can even tell you that if he wanted to stop the man (Ortom) who brought him, who became his guarantor. That is the corruption we are talking about.
“He has now come into office. He has seen money. He has seen power. Now, he can open his mouth to say that if he wanted to stop Ortom, he will do it. We dare him. And he said he can also stop any contestant. I dare him. If he is national chairman, I dare him to stop any contestant if he has what it takes”, he said.
Wike wondered about the basis of Ayu’s comment on him being sacked when the issue on ground is the demand for his resignation.
He said nobody has said that Senator Ayu should be sacked. He emphasised that it is important that people understand the difference between being sacked and the call for promises made to be kept.
“And what we are saying is, as a man of honour, if he (Ayu) has any, keep to your honour, keep to your integrity. So, the issue of people sacking him does not arise.
“All we are saying is, keep to the agreement, yes, in order for our party to show inclusivity, to show in our party that we are not marginalising any zone. That if the presidential candidate comes from the north as it has come from the north, then the national chairman will come from the south.
“So, saying that nobody can sack him does not arise. Nobody has said he must be sacked. For you to be sacked, there are procedures for sacking people”, he said, stressing, that the call for the resignation of Ayu is in agreement with the letter and spirit of the party’s constitution.
The governor explained that the party’s constitution clearly spelt out that the positions of the national chairman of the party and the presidential candidate cannot be of the same zone as currently is the case.
“By our party’s constitution, there must be zoning for elective and political offices. He had said, knowing fully well that there was no way the presidential candidate and the national party’s chairman should come from one zone, that if the presidential candidate comes from the north I (he) will resign to allow the south to produce the national chairman.
“If at this point in time, you’re the national chairman of the party who has told Nigerians that this is what you’ll do if this happens, and now that has happened and you’re running away from doing that, so, how do you think that Nigerians will believe you assuming you try to tell them to vote for your party.
“What we are saying is that we want our party to win. But if you think you can do without keeping to the promises you have made, so be it.
“Why does he not want to resign? He is hoping that Nigerians will donate money to the party so he will superintendent over that money.
“He has already finished the one of N11 billion from party’s primaries. Account for it, he says it is in the account. Show the public the account. Print out the statement of account of PDP and let the world see how the N11 billion was expended.
“And this is the party that all of us have laboured to take over power from the ruling party that we said has done badly. And then the national chairman will open his mouth to talk about stopping contestants. Ayu shouldn’t say so. He tried it in Rivers State. He came to manipulate and try to put some gubernatorial aspirants, but he saw the result. We dealt with him”, he said.
Wike also reminded those saying that they can do without the five PDP governors who are demanding inclusivity in the party, that “votes are not cast in the media, neither are elections won there, but in the units, local governments and States” where those five governors are at home with their people.
The governor also took a swipe at Dele Momodu. He further mocked him for securing only one vote as a presidential aspirant during the primaries.
The Rivers State governor said he will never allow anybody to use his name to become relevant as Osita Chidoka is trying to do.
Wike said when Chidoka was once denied the party’s governorship ticket in his State, he left the PDP for another.
He maintained that he is a different breed of a politician, who does not and will not abandon his party but has resolved to remain in it to fight for inclusivity.
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