A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and the leader of the Concerned PDP League (CPDPL), Comrade Daboikiabo Z. Warmate, yesterday, asked National Chairman, Dr. Iyorchia Ayu, to immediately resign, otherwise, the chances of the party winning the forthcoming presidential election could be jeopardised.
Comrade Warmate made this demand in a statement he personally signed, stressing that over one week after former Vice President Atiku Abubakar emerged as PDP’s presidential candidate, Ayu has no moral right to retain his position as chairman.
The PDP activist said: “Ayu, as a matter of urgency and if indeed he wants PDP to win the presidential election, should resign and immediately hand over to the deputy chairman south in consonance with the relevant sections of the PDP constitution as amended 2017, as a way of maintaining national balance and a sense of belonging by all.”
He noted that PDP in southern Nigeria is already feeling sidelined with Iyorchia Ayu, a northerner (Benue State, North Central) as chairman and Atiku Abubakar (Adamawa State, North East) northerner, as a presidential candidate, and Walid Jibril, another northerner (Nasarawa State, North Central) as BoT chairman all at the helms of PDP affairs, is an affront and an insult to the sensibility of southern PDP members.
According to the party stalwart, “It will be difficult for PDP members to campaign in the south, especially with the fact that zoning was jettison and the south have not gotten over with yet. He must go.”
He said many members of the party in the north have started canvassing that Ayu retains his seat as chairman until after the 2023 presidential election. This, he said, “will not work except they want PDP to lose the 2023 election.”
Warmate added: “We don’t know what to tell our people in the south again about the combination of northerners, Atiku Abubakar, Iyorchia Ayu, Walid Jibril, at the helm of affairs of the party, that can convince them to support and cast their votes for us. Some people are beginning to refer to the party as ‘that northern party”.
“I am sure they know, and why the Chairman and BoT chairman appears not to have resigned still baffles us. It is now a matter of urgency that we should tell our national chairman and BoT chairman to quit before their hold on power begins to affect the fortune of our party.”
He further said, “I am not demanding for Ayu’s resignation just because, the presidential candidate emerge from the north but that the black national chairman, the national secretary, and National Organizing Secretary six month in office is a disastrous failure. That’s why I and my group are calling for their resignation.