Rivers State governor, Nyesom Wike, has traced the arrogance of the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar and the party’s National Chairman, Iyorchia Ayu, to a deal they struck with somebody at the Presidency.
According to him, the presidential force was working for Atiku’s victory in 2023 and promised to disclose the identity of the person at the appropriate time. However, Wike, who made his remarks yesterday when he led Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, to inaugurate a new Faculty of Humanities built by his administration in Ahoada for the Rivers State University, said Atiku and Ayu might be disappointed in 2023.
He recalled that the same presidential force promised someone the presidential ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC) but failed to actualise it. The Governor insisted that the deal was the main reason why Atiku and Ayu had failed to honour their promises of restructuring the party ahead of the election.
Insisting that Ayu must go, the Governor recalled all the promises made by Ayu to cede his position to the South if a northerner emerged the party’s presidential candidate, while he described the resignation of the party’s Chairman, Board of Trustees (BoT), Walid Jibrin, as inconsequential to the battle of his camp for justice, equity and fairness.
He said Atiku, immediately after emerging as candidate, visited him, solicited his support and promised that Ayu would resign in obedience to the party’s Constitution. According to him, it had never happened in the history of the party that the National Chairman and the party’s presidential candidate would come from the same zone. The governor said he was fighting for the inclusion of the South in the affairs of the party, adding that the battle was not about his personal interests.
On the resignation of the BoT Chairman, Wike described the BoT as an advisory body that had no decision-making capacity.
While inaugurating the project, Makinde said he would stand with Wike against characters in the PDP, who had refused to do the right things.
