Protesters demand Ayu’s sack, call national chairman mole in PDP

By Tunde Opalana

Protesters numbering about 50 on Wednesday stormed the national secretariat of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Abuja carrying placards and banners with various inscriptions calling on the national chairman of the party, Dr. Iyorchia Ayu to resign from office.

The protests by the Concerned Deltans aggravated calls in recent times for the sacking of the national chairman.

The Delta group accused Ayu of fuelling the crisis rocking the state chapter of the party by failing to comply with court order over the PDP governorship candidacy in the state.

Obviously not in support of the party’s governorship candidate for the 2023 election, Sheriff Oborevwori, the protesters want the Ayu-led National Working Committee to obey the ruling of Justice Taiwo of the Federal High Court, Abuja which rule against Sherrif’s candidacy.

For allegedly taking side in the affairs of a state chapter, the protesters said that Ayu lacked leadership quality and cannot lead PDP to victory in 2023.

The Daily Times recalls that Abuja high court had on July 7, 2022, disqualified Sheriff Oborevwori as PDP governorship candidate in the state.

In the judgement, Justice Taiwo Taiwo ruled that Oborevwori ought not to be the candidate of the PDP for allegedly supplying false and forged documents to the Independent National Electoral Commission.

The judge subsequently directed INEC and the PDP to recognise the plaintiff, David Edevbie, as the candidate.

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The protesters said PDP leadership led by Ayu had so far not effected this change, which is a clear indication that he alongside the state governor, Ifeanyi Okowa want to deny PDP members in the state right to choose their candidate.

Inscriptions on their placards attest to this. Such inscriptions are “Ayu lacks capacity to lead PDP to victory in 2023; Ayu wants to destroy PDP; Ayu is killing Delta PDP; Ayu NWC is biased; PDP is dying in Delta state; Ayu not wishing Delta PDP well and other inscriptions,” pointed out that Ayu is a mole in PDP.

Leader of the group, Chris Anthony said: “Ayu led National Working Committee (NWC) failed to comply, refused to forward the name of the expected candidate of the party to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

“Ayu lacks the capacity to lead. He should resign. He can’t manage the affairs of the party. He can’t obey rule of law.”

The protesters asked that if PDP cannot address a minor problem in a state chapter, how can it address the larger problem in the country.

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Anthony said: “We expect the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) under the watch of Ayu to comply with the judgement that has been passed by Justice Taiwo Taiwo on the 7th, DailyTimesNGR gathered.

“They are playing games with the judgement. The party is supposed to forward the name of the winner of that election based on the court order to INEC but they have deliberately refused to do that because they are working in connivance with the Delta state governor, Okowa as an individual.

“They have refused to comply with the court order. Funny enough, INEC officially wrote to the PDP through their legal adviser that they have received a judgement of this nature and that they (INEC) will do the needful by complying and they also expect the PDP to do same but the PDP up to his moment has deliberately decided to abandon what the court had said.

“We are all shouting: ‘we want to lead Nigeria’, if you cannot organise your house properly, how do you expect to address the Nigerian problem. If you simply cannot address the minor problem in Delta, then how do Nigerians trust the PDP to tackle the challenges facing the Nigerian nation in a larger scale.

“We are calling on the leadership of the PDP to do the needful; obey the court order, recognise David… as the governorship candidate of the PDP as the court has so declared.

“The implication of the action of the PDP action on the Delta issue is that they are trying to throw up the fortunes of the PDP in Delta. Everybody knows that the PDP in Delta state is the majority party and there is no other political party in Delta state apart from the PDP.

“But with the action of the national chairman of party, we are beginning to be convinced of what people have been saying that Ayu is a mole in the PDP to throw up Delta state PDP to the opposition. We see Ayu as a mole in the PDP. He is playing the script of the APC just to actualise the emergence of APC governor in Delta.

“He lacks the capacity to lead the PDP and so he should honourably resign. He has demonstrated gross incompetence in handling the affairs of the party. He should resign. Ayu should resign. He does not have the capacity to manage the affairs of the PDP.”

Meanwhile, the Board of Trustees of the party (BoT) has assured that all issues related to the outcome of the presidential primary election and choice of vice presidential candidate will be resolved.

The committee at the end of its meeting at the PDP headquarters in Abuja yesterday disclosed that a committee of the whole has been constituted to interface between the Rivers State governor, Nyesom Wike and leadership of the party.

Addressing journalists, the acting Secretary of the BoT, Senator Abdul Ningi said: “We have set up in this meeting committee of the BoT to be able to interface between warring factions, particularly the acrimony that is taking place between the presidential candidate and governor Wike and any other conflict that is taking place in the nation within our party formation.

“The committee is the committee of the whole, that means every other BoT member is a member of the committee. I cannot tell you the grievances and the time frame.”

He refuted any plan to ask the chairman, Ayu to step down from office.

Ningi said: “We have not even discussed any issue of anybody stepping down. We discuss what we discuss, and what we discussed is what I told you.”

Members of the Trustees immediately after the meeting proceeded to the residence of the presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar to commence the reconciliation process.