The National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Senator Iyorchia Ayu, on Thursday, secured the nod of the party’s National Executive Committee members to continue as the chairman.
The party’s 97th NEC meeting passed a vote of confidence in Ayu.
This is despite the clamour for his resignation by the River State Governor, Nyesom Wike, and many other top members of the party from the South.
However, the Chairman of the party’s Board of Trustees, Senator Walid Jibrin, resigned from office and was replaced with a former President of the Senate, Adolphus Wabara, in an acting capacity.
397 members of the NEC, including past national chairmen of the party, former Vice President Namadi Sambo, and the party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, among others were accredited for the meeting.
All the NEC members at the meeting voted in support of Ayu to continue as the chairman of the party.
The acting BoT chairman, Wabara, had put it to a voice vote after the House Minority Leader, Ndudi Elumelu, moved a motion for Ayu to remain in office.
Speaking at the NEC, Ayu denied there was a crisis in the party, describing what was happening in the party as a normal disagreement.
He assured members that the disagreements would be resolved before the 2023 election.
Ayu said, “This party is united despite the impression some people might want to create. Anybody here would see the enthusiasm and harmony in the party. It is normal to have disagreements.
“This party knows how to settle its rifts before the election. We need to focus on security, which, among others is Nigeria’s biggest worry. We will come out of this meeting stronger than we have ever been.”
Also, Wabara said with the ambience at the meeting and the internal mechanism to resolve the crisis, the party could go to sleep ahead of the 2023 elections.
He added, “Today is a great day for us and we are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. We have an in-built mechanism to solve feuds. When people expect us to implode, that is when we come out stronger.
“With this, I can boldly say we can go to sleep; we have won the 2023 election. We should always debrief ourselves in-house rather than play to the gallery. We should watch our utterances. It is only God that knows tomorrow.
“Once you voiced a word, it is always difficult to withdraw. My advice to us is to be mature enough to control ourselves. There is no problem in life that has no solution. The campaign starts, and everything has changed with the NWC. We should go home and ensure our votes count. We are in support of the national committee on this.”
On his part, Atiku assured the party leadership that all disagreements would be resolved.
He said, “Family disagreements are normal but what I can assure you is that we are determined to resolve them internally. The PDP is the oldest party in Nigeria. We have rules, and regulations and I want to add, that no matter the level of disagreement, it must be resolved with the rules of the party. All our disagreements must be resolved internally.”
Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tambuwal, who is also the Chairman of the PDP Governors Forum, called on party members to explore internal mechanisms and ensure the resolution of all disagreements in the party.
He urged the Independent National Electoral Commission and the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), to make sure there are free, fair and credible elections in 2023 like was recently done in Osun.
Apart from Tambuwal, Governors Bala Mohammed (Bauchi), Darius Ishaku (Taraba) and Douye Diri (Bayelsa), attended the meeting while their Delta State counterpart, Ifeanyi Okowa, sent his apology.
The deputy governors of Benue and Adamawa also attended the NEC meeting.