Nyesom Wike, governor of Rivers, says Iyorchia Ayu, national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), doesn’t want to resign from his position because he wants to continue overseeing the party’s finances.
The Rivers governor spoke during the weekend at a media parley in Port Harcourt, the capital of Rivers state.
Wike and his associates have been at the forefront of the campaign for the resignation of Ayu on the basis that it violates the party’s constitution for the national chairman to hail from the same zone as the presidential candidate.
Ayu is from Benue in the north-central, while Atiku Abubakar, the PDP standard bearer, hails from Adamawa in Nigeria’s north-east.
Wike had also accused the PDP national chairman of being “very corrupt” and not being accountable for the money that enters the party’s coffers.
He had said Ayu received N1 billion from a presidential hopeful and another N100 million from a governor to do a project that the party already paid for.
But the PDP national chairman has denied both claims.
Speaking on Sunday, the Rivers governor said Ayu is staying put despite the pressure to step down because he wants to oversee the influx of donations.
“Why does he not want to resign? He is hoping that Nigerians will donate money to the party so he will superintendent over that money,” he said.
“He has already finished the one of N11 billion from the party’s primaries. Account for it, he says it is in the account. Show the public the account. Print out the statement of account of PDP and let the world see how the N11 billion was expended.
“And this is the party that all of us have laboured to take over power from the ruling party that we said has done badly. And then the national chairman will open his mouth to talk about stopping contestants.
“Ayu shouldn’t say so. He tried it in Rivers state. He came to manipulate and try to put some gubernatorial aspirants, but he saw the result. We dealt with him.”
