River’s PDP: We support Ayu removal, Wike is right 

The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Rivers State has vowed to back the position of its leader, Governor Nyesom Wike that National Chairman Iyorchia Ayu must resign.

There are ongoing talks between the governor’s group and the team of the party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, in a bid to end the crisis rocking the party.

State Publicity Secretary, Tambari Sydney Gbara, said it was unfortunate that some party chiefs in the state chose to ignore provisions of the PDP constitution.

He wondered why Senator Lee Maeba was opposed to the call for Ayu to resign.

Describing Wike as the indisputable leader of the party in the state, Gbara said the entire party structure in Rivers was behind the governor.

He said: “Governor Wike is the leader of PDP in Rivers State. Therefore, where he stands, is where we stand as a party.”

He insisted that the call for Ayu’s resignation was in tandem with the provisions of the PDP’s constitution, which frowns at a particular section of the country producing both the national chairman and presidential candidate of the party.

He said: “In 2007 and 2008, when President Musa Yar’Adua emerged as the standard bearer of the PDP at the national level, Col. Ahmadu Ali (retd) who was the national chairman then, had to resign.

“A mini-convention was immediately convoked that brought Prince Vincent Ogbulafar from the South, to balance up. Therefore, why should it be different now?”