By There were signs on Sunday that governors elected on the ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) may have been asked to sway the national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dr Iyorchia Ayu to consider leaving office as a compromise to the furious feud in the party for power-sharing.
The arrangement was said to be part of the efforts made at the weekend by stakeholders in the party to unite and reinforce the opposition party ahead of the presidential poll.
Yet, a spokesman of the Atiku campaign team, Senator Dino Melaye, said Ayu wouldn’t leave office, stating that the governors were instrumental in Ayu becoming national chairman.
A source nonetheless, said the move to drag the governors to sway Ayu to leave office was a development folllowing a meeting held by the presidential candidate of the PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar with Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State and his allies, including Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State; Seyi Makinde (Oyo) and Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State in the bid to reconcile the two camps that had been in at odds after the choice of a running mate by Atiku.
As indicated by sources, the face-off between the two camps is one of the factors delaying the constitution of PDP Presidential Campaign Council for the 2023 general election.
“It has been technically agreed that Ayu should step aside. But whether he will agree to resign or not depends on him,” another source said.
Nearly all the 13 PDP governors are split over the stewing crisis that has engulfed the party, with a couple of them openly backing Wike over his agitation.
The source claimed that history was going to rehash the same thing as he claimed that the Third Republic senator overlooked all entries that he ought to leave as the president of the Senate, following a plot to impeach him during the agitation for the de-annulment of June 12, 1993, presidential race won by the late Chief MKO Abiola.
He was eventually impeached by the Senate during the military-induced political crisis.
