“I had indicated before now that when they said we’re fighting about G-5, that what will happen this period, we have to take this party back. We cannot allow the party to be in the hands who have nothing attached to the party. Just I want to occupy a position.”
These were the exact words of Nyesom Wike, Governor of Rivers State, as he threw his weight behind the suspension of Iyorchia Ayu, National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), insisting that the former Senate President, had no business leading the main opposition party.
Wike, who spoke on Monday, while playing host in Port Harcourt, to a crew of Sunrise Daily, a Channels Television breakfast programme on Monday, said he would give every support within his means to ensure Ayu’s ouster.
Citing the dismal outing in the just concluded general elections, in Benue State, where Ayu, also a former Minister of Industries in the government of President Olusegun Obasanjo, hails Wike, wondered on what ground he would be angling to remain in office, having lost the presidential and National Assembly elections on February 25 and the governorship and state House of Assembly edition on March 18.
In slamming the former Senate President with suspension, over alleged anti-party activities, via his Igyorov ward, Gboko LGA of Benue State, the party, in a letter dated March 24 and signed by 12 executive members, accused him of working against the success of the party in the ward during the 2023 general election, adding that he did not even cast his vote in the governorship polls.
Wike, who echoed the sentiments, while describing the embattled party boss as a complete failure, said: “I am in support of the suspension. In fact, if he (Ayu) had left before now, they would have said that was why the PDP failed the election. First of all, if you are a member of the party, will you be happy with the way the party is today? It is only in this country that you see someone who has failed woefully and without any conscience would still like to occupy the position.
“In advanced countries, leaders of political parties do not need to be told to turn in the towel when they fail. Before now, Ayu ought to have left that office. People were saying we were pushing for Ayu to leave and that we had a hidden agenda to make PDP fail. Ayu remained and PDP didn’t win. You lost your unit as national chairman, you lost your ward as national chairman, you lost your local government as national chairman of the party. Not only did you take a distant third in the presidential election, you also lost in the state gubernatorial election.”
