Rivers State governor, Nyesom Wike, yesterday, during the commissioning of road projects by PDP South-West leader, Chief Olabode George, in the State, responded to the statement by the PDP Chairman, Senator Iyorchia Ayu, when he described Wike and members of his group as ‘children when he and others formed the PDP’.
Wike explained that as party chairman, Ayu is supposed to unify and lead the party to victory in the 2023 general elections, “Dr Ayu said we are children. Yes, the children brought you to be chairman of the party. The children brought you from the gutter and made you chairman. Ayu, you were impeached as Senate president. “Ayu was sacked by (ex-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’ll help you.”
Ayu had voluntarily promised to resign his chairmanship as a northerner if an aspirant from the north emerged as the presidential candidate of the PDP.
“A man who is inconsistent and ran away from the party, telling those of us who spent our time, sleepless nights to make sure this party does not go down, we are children. Now, you have the temerity, the audacity to tell us we are children.”
Wike said, ‘’Nigerians have seen how ungrateful some of you can be, and that’s why also Nigerians must be careful. If we give this man power, if we give these people power, are you sure they will also be grateful to Nigerians?’’
“As you make your bed, so you will lie on it. I’ve been quiet thinking that we will reconcile. Now that you have brought in arrogance to say you were elected, where did you campaign? Show me where your poster was anywhere in this state,’’ he challenged Ayu.
In his reaction to the statement by Ayu, Bode George said, “Party members from the South are already feeling alienated. PDP is not a private company. So, before we start the presidential campaign at the end of this month, the national chairman must go to the South. That is what Governor Wike is saying and as a life member of the Board of Trustees of our party, I support this position 100 per cent. Statutorily, it is the national chairman who hands over the party’s flag to our presidential candidate. How will party members from the South feel when they see that at all political rallies Southerners have no public political representation?”
George urged party members to be united in their determination to ensure that the PDP returns to the Presidential Villa in Abuja by May 29, 2023. “But we can only go back to Aso Rock if we are united and not divided. Some people are abusing Governor Wike; he is a trouble shooter. Those abusing him, as an elder and as a father in this party, I am directing them; they must stop immediately because Governor Wike is only fighting for injustice, for equity, for fairness in our party”.
“He is not only a strong pillar in this party, but a mobiliser, a financier and an actualiser. Since he joined the PDP, he has not left this party. I’m also a founding father of the party and since 1998 I have not left this party,” he added.
But there are moves by the NWC of the PDP to move ahead with the composition of the PDP Presidential Campaign Council, with a National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting slated for next week after it was initially called off last week.