The Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the forthcoming 2023 election, Abubakar Atiku on Wednesday said that the national chairman of the party , Iyorcha Ayu’s resignation can only be done in accordance with the party constitution, rules, regulations and practice
This is coming as Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State insisted that the National Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Iyorcha Ayu should stepped down to give room for fairness and equity saying this is the only way out of the crisis rocking the umbrella party.
Atiku who stated this during an interactive session with and chieftains of the party from the South West zone in Ibadan stressed that what governor Makinde was requesting is achievable if it is backed up with the constitution of the party.
“We cannot do anything outside our constitution except it is amended, we cannot do anything unless the law are amended, Ayu must go through our constitution, rules, regulations, and our practice, otherwise, we cannot give the kind of leadership Nigerians want.”
Atiku however urged PDP not to allow the issue to derail them from winning the next elections, adding that “it is possible, it is achievable, we have done it before and we have started doing it.”
Atiku arrived in Ibadan in company of Governors Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta state his running mate, Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto, Ademola Adeleke, Governor- elect for Osun state, Bala Mohammad of Bauchi State,Ladi Adebutu, governorship candidate of PDP in Ogun state
Others were former governors of Niger state, Babangida Aliyu, from Ondo, Olusegun Mimiko, Osun state Olagunsoye Oyinlola, Ekiti State governor, Ayodele Fayose, Taofek Arapaja, Dino Melaye, Raymond Dokpesi and
Soji Adagunodo and Eyitayo Jegede among others.
But while maintaining that the stand of Southwest PDP is for Ayu to resign, Makinde said that there are still some issues to be addressed before the election for the party to arrive at it’s destination.
The Oyo Governor who received the PDP chieftains alongside his deputy ,Adebayo Lawal and Speaker of Oyo state house of Assembly,Debo Ogundoyin noted that the PDP must restructure itself before it will restructure Nigeria.
According to him, if we want unified Nigeria, we must unified PDP first, if we want government of national unity, it must reflect in PDP, if we want to restructure in Nigeria, we must restructure PDP first.”
“Our Presidential candidate is from Northeast, our National Chairman is from North Central, the Director General of Atiku campaign, Aminu Tambuwal is from the Northwest, so the PDP National Chairman should step down.”
He noted that one of the conditions to balance the equation is to chose the national chairman from the South since the presidential candidate is from the North.
“We must speak the truth. The truth is that we don’t have any issue either with the party or the candidate. We don’t have any issue in PDP. This is not about individual. Those are the issues that are behind us, it has happened, it has happened. The issue is that we must restructure Nigeria if we want unity in Nigeria. But, we must restructure PDP itself before we restructure Nigeria,so the South West PDP is asking the PDP chairman to resign. The south west PDP is telling the Chairman to step down”.
Umar Damagum, PDP Deputy National Chairman (North),speaking on behalf of the National Chairman of the party urged members of the party to be committed and work deligently for the emergence of the party in the coming elections.
While commending governor Seyi Makinde for hosting the program noted that the choice of the venue for the meeting was deliberate because Ibadan is the capital of politics in Southwest and Nigeria at large.
Aminu Tambuwal, Sokoto state Governor and PDP governors Forum, said the meeting was a sign of good things to come, adding that Southwest would come back to PDP in 2023.
Akinade Kayode , Ibadan