Wike hits back as PDP chairman Ayu saying his arrogance will cost the party at the polls

GOVERNOR Nyesom Wike of Rivers State has warned that the ingratitude and arrogance of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) national chairman Senator Iyorchia Ayu will cost the party victory during the 2023 presidential elections.

In late June at its annual convention, the PDP, elected former vice president Alhaji Atiku Abubakar as its flagbearer for next year's presidential election. Governor Wike was a candidate in that election but he was beaten into second place and to make matters worse for him, he was not then picked as the party's running mate.

With Alhaji Abubakar opting to pick Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State as his running mate, Governor Wike has been on the war path and there are now fears that he will dump the PDP. Among other things, he has been fraternizing with members of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC)  lately, amid talk of him possibly decamping.

Over the last fortnight, there have been a series of meetings in London to resolve the crisis, with Atiku flying to the UK to meet with Governor Wike in person. Among the demands made by the Wike camp are that Senator Ayu should stand down as party chairman because he was not neutral during the primaries.

However, Senator Ayu has rejected this demand, calling those demanding his resignation  children, pointing out that he has not committed any offence that would warrant him being asked to step down. He dismissed those asking for his sacking as people who want to destabilise the party.

Hitting back at Senator Ayu, Governor Wike said that those he described as children brought him out of the gutter and made him the national chairman of the party. He challenged Senator Ayu to show himself as a man of honour and integrity by vacating the chairmanship seat as he had promised to leave should northern Nigeria produce the party’s presidential candidate.

Governor Wike said: “I thought as a chairman of a party who wants to win elections, your business is to bring peace to your party, your business is not to divide your party. Your business is not to show arrogance to your party.

“Yes, the children brought you to be chairman of the party, the children brought you from the gutter to make you chairman. You can imagine what power can do, you can imagine how ingratitude, how people can be ingrates in their lives.

“Ayu, you were impeached as senate president, Ayu you were sacked by former 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."