The Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) Board of Trustees (BoT) and the National Executive Committee (NEC) in a bid to resolve the wrangling between its presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and Rivers State governor, Nyesom Wike.
Wike had asked for the resignation of national chairman of the party Dr. Iyiorcha Ayu’s resignation as one of his major conditions to back the PDP’s presidential candidate.
Ayu had promised shortly before he was picked unopposed at the party’s national convention in Abuja last October to resign in the event of another northerner becoming PDP’s presidential candidate but has remain insistent of staying as the chairman.
However, the BoT and NEC will meet on Thursday to decide whether Ayu who had been in verbal war with Wike should remain in office in the face of the crisis sparked by his refusal to step down following the emergence of Atiku as the party’s flag bearer.
According to reports from The Nation, stakehoders of the party, worried by the festering crisis and the threat it poses to its cohesion ahead of the coming elections, have decided to take the bull by the horn and take a firm decision on the propriety of keeping Ayu on the job.
The Thursday meeting will be preceded on Wednesday by that of the PDP National Working Committee (NWC) and the National Caucus, although the source declined to disclose the agenda of the meetings, it was gathered that the call for Ayu’s resignation would be discussed.
Also expected to feature prominently at the meetings is the issue of nominations into the party’s Presidential Campaign Council.
The meetings of the NWC and the National Caucus were initially scheduled for August 10 while those of the BoT and NEC were originally fixed for August 11.
The PDP National Secretary, Senator Samuel Anyanwu, in an August 8, 2022 statement, attributed the postponement to “unforeseen circumstances.”
Atiku is said to be in a fix on how to handle the Ayu matter.
While he is not disposed to Ayu leaving before the elections because it could affect the party’s chances at the polls, he also does not want to lose the financial backing of Wike and the seven state governor allies of the Rivers State strongman.
In the same breath, Atiku is said to be troubled by the realization that his acceptance of Wike’s demands would translate into his (Atiku’s) abandonment of some of his strong allies from Rivers State who are currently not on the side of their governor.
