Iyorchia Ayu, national chairman of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), on Monday, said he has no plan to quit office until completing his four-year tenure.
The statement which was made on the Twitter handle of Ayu’s media aide, Simon Imobo-Tswam, some believe, could affect the ongoing efforts by some stakeholders to reconcile Governor Nyesom Wike and the party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar.
Wike has reportedly insisted on Ayu’s resignation, as a way of balancing the PDP zoning policy, as part of the conditions for peace in the party.
It was not immediately clear what impact Ayu’s latest statement will have on the meeting between Governor Wike’s camp led by his campaign director-general and former information minister, Jerry Gana and the Atiku Abubakar’s team, led by Governor Ahmadu Fitiri of Adamawa State.
Both teams were supposed to meet on Monday in Port Harcourt, to decide the direction of the party, ahead of the September 29 flag-off of the general elections campaigns.
The tweet reads: “the PDP national chairman, Dr. Iyiochia Ayu, has not resigned and has no plan of resigning. “For clarity and emphasis, he was elected for a tenure of four years.”
In a related development, the presidential candidate of the PDP, Atiku Abubakar on Monday led other chieftains of the party, including former Vice President Namadi Sambo, to receive persons who defected from the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Adamawa.
A statement by the PDP flag bearer’s media team stated that the rate of decampment from the APC to the PDP was an indication that the opposition party is waxing stronger.
“It is clear everywhere that the PDP is back. Today, we are here to receive new members into the PDP. I welcome the new entrants to our party,” Ayu said at the venue.
Atiku, who was greeted with euphoria by the crowd at the venue, also welcomed the new members of the party, promising to work with them.
“I have been serving the people since I joined politics 30 years ago and that is my promise to you all today. I believe that Governor Fintiri has done a good job and that we should join hands to make sure he wins his second term election,” Atiku said.
Speaking on behalf of the supporters and over 160,000 decampees in various electoral wards across the state, Shuaibu Babbbas, a member of the Adamawa State House of Assembly from Fufore Gurin constituency, affirmed their loyalty and commitment to the PDP in its quest to oust the APC and fix the broken state of the country’s socio-economic and political fabrics.
