PDP crisis: I can’t force Ayu to resign, Atiku tells Wike

Former vice president and the presidential candidate of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar on Wednesday reinstated his position that Senator Iyioricha Ayu cannot be forced to resign as the party’s National Chairman.

Atiku made the remarks while reacting to the decision of the camp of Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State to pull out of his campaign council.

The statement reads: Early this morning, my attention was drawn to a news clip in which several very senior and influential members of our great party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), addressed the press and, amongst other things, declared that they are withdrawing, forthwith, from the Presidential Campaign Council set up by our party to judiciously plan and prosecute the general elections set to hold in February and March 2023, on the one hand; and reiterated their earlier calls for the resignation or removal from office of the national chairman of our party, Senator Dr. Iyorchia Ayu, on the other hand.

The people that addressed the press must have their reasons for withdrawing from the Presidential Campaign Council, and I will not speculate as to what those reasons may be. Personally, I am quite surprised with this withdrawal because, as I have been informed by officials of our party, apart from the Rivers State chapter of the PDP, all the remaining states of the federation submitted names of people who they wanted included in the Presidential Campaign Council. Vanguard