Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State has said the National Chairman of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Iyorchia Ayu’s “ingratitude” and “arrogance” will cost the party 2023 presidential election.
Wike made this assertion on Thursday while speaking at the inauguration of roads in Ikwerre Local Government Area.
Governor Wike added that those who Ayu described as children brought him out of the gutter and made him the national chairman of the party.
He said, “I thought as a chairman of a party who wants to win elections, your business is to bring peace to your party; your business is not to divide your party.
“Your business is not to show arrogance to your party.
“Yes, the children brought you to be chairman of the party. The children brought you from the gutter to make you chairman.
“You can imagine what power can do. You can imagine how ingratitude — how people can be ingrates in their lives,” Wike said.
“Ayu, you were impeached as Senate President, Ayu you were sacked by (former President Olusegun) Obasanjo in his administration two times. Arrogance cannot take you anywhere.
“Now, we have seen that you don’t want the party to win the election. We will help you.
“These children — these people you call boys — brought you from nothing,” he said.
Wike alleged that Ayu was scared of losing his seat because of the proceeds accrued from sale of forms during the PDP primaries.
Meanwhile, Wike has challenged Ayu to show himself as a man of honour and integrity by vacating the chairmanship seat as he had promised to leave should the northern region produce the party’s flag bearer for 2023.
“I thought as a chairman of a party who wants to win the election, your business is to bring peace to the party; your business is not to divide your party, your business is not to show arrogance,” he noted
Wike’s outburst comes on the heels of calls for Ayu to resign as the party’s chairman.
It’s believed that there’s a conception within the leadership of the PDP chairman prior to the emergence of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar the presidential candidate of the PDP in May.
But on Wednesday, was still insistent that he will not resign.
The PDP Board of Trustees (BoT) Chairman, Walid Jibrin, and a northerner from Nasarawa State noted that it is unfair for the party to have its presidential candidate and national chairman from the same region.
Credit: THE VANGUARD.
