Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State on Saturday said no vote of confidence can save the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Iyorchia Ayu, just as the assurance tool passed by the party’s National Executive Committee in April 2021 failed to save Ayu’s predecessor, Uche Secondus.
“I was listening, watching, they said there is one man they call Secondus. They said he was dancing, celebrating that NEC gave their person a vote of confidence.
“He (Secondus) forgets history that the same NEC through Aliyu Babangida who moved a motion for a vote of confidence supported by the same person – Ndudi Elumelu. They gave him a vote of confidence, what happened? He left office,” Wike said in Port Harcourt on Saturday when he received hundreds of defectors from the All Progressives Congress (APC) to the PDP in the oil-rich state.
Wike and Secondus are said to be kinsmen but a feud had thwarted their relationship last year and the Rivers governor had demanded his resignation as PDP chairman. Secondus’ tenure was later truncated last August when a court sacked him.
Speaking on Saturday, Wike challenged Secondus to come back to Rivers to mobilise support for the PDP ahead of the 2023 elections and insisted that Ayu must exit the chairmanship of the party for a southerner.
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The governor said, “We don’t fight and go back. If you like, you can have as many votes of confidence, it is not my business; my business is to make sure the right thing is done and the right thing must be done whether today or tomorrow.
“So, let nobody worry himself. If you are dancing, come home and dance, come and mobilise for the party you think that will election. I am here waiting for him. No more 419 in this game. Enough is enough.
“We are only waiting for INEC (Independent National Electoral Commission) for them to blow the whistle. When they blow the whistle, we will know those who are in charge of Rivers State and those who are mere visitors to the state.”
Channels Television had earlier reported that PDP NEC in Abuja passed a vote of confidence in Ayu amid the crisis rocking the main opposition party.
Also, the party’s Board of Trustees chairman, Walid Jibrin (from Nasarawa State), resigned and a former President of the Senate of Nigeria, Adolphus Wabara (from Abia State), emerged as acting BoT chair.
However, Wike insisted that Ayu, who is from Benue State, must step down for a southerner, saying that the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar (from Adamawa State), told him in person when he won the May primary that Ayu must vacate his position as party chairman.
Wike, who lost the party’s presidential primary to Atiku in May, has maintained that it is injustice for northerners can’t hold the two major positions of the party.