Amid the growing crisis that has continued to rock the boat of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Governor Nyesom Wike has allegedly revealed inside details of how the National Chairman of the party, Iyorchia Ayu worked against him during the presidential primary election which held in May, 2022.
Wike who spoke during a media chat in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, on Friday recounted how Ayu held several meetings with some ex-military generals, stakeholders in the party on the night of the party’s presidential primary and special convention to prevent his emergence as the party’s presidential candidate.
He said Ayu was the one behind the resignation of several aspirants before and during the primaries.
The governor further revealed that Ayu pressured him to resign his presidential aspirations just to pave way for the emergence of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar as the party’s flagbearer.
In his words, “A whole national chairman told some aspirants that if Wike wins that he was going to resign. As chairman of the convention, he allowed Aminu Tambuwal to speak a second time. Look, integrity matters.
“And after everything, he (Ayu) went and hugged Tambuwal that he was the hero of the convention.
“Meetings upon meetings were going. Pressures were being mounted on people to step down.
“Even on the night of the convention meetings were going on. That is why we started our convention late.
“Some of the retired generals were involved. Some of the meetings were held in their houses. There is nothing they didn’t do for me to step down.
“Those who know me, know that I would have stopped the convention, even if heaven falls.
“But I said for peace to reign, let the convention go on. Now a candidate has emerged. And we need to win elections as a party. That is the ultimate, winning elections.
“But the right things must be done. It was agreed and it has been the practice of the party that if the candidate comes from the North, the national chairman should come from the South.
“The candidate (Atiku) knows all these. He even said it to me when he came to my house in Abuja.”
More to come…
