PDP Crisis: Ayu Returns,Tackles Removal Plot

Chuks Okocha

As an ouster plot thickens over the removal of the  Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) National Chairman, Dr. Iyorchia Ayu has returned to the country after over two weeks vacation abroad.

His return to Nigeria may not be unconnected to the various plots by some aggrieved stakeholders of the party to remove him as the national chairman  of the party.

He returned to Abuja in the early hours of yesterday.

Ayu’s Special Assistant on Communication and Strategy, Simon Imobo-Tswam, yesterday confirmed that the PDP chairman had returned to the country.

Imobo-Tswam said his principal touched down at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, yesterday morning from the United Kingdom after a short vacation.

He said before travelling out Ayu handed over to the deputy Chairman (North), Ambassador Umar Damagum and also notified the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of his brief vacation.

The PDP national chairman travelled moments after the selection of Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State as the vice presidential candidate of the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar.

In his absence, plot for his removal thickened as some party chieftain demanded that he either quit or be shown the exit door.

Days after Atiku announced his choice of Okowa, he left for Dubai even as Ayu also went on vacation abroad leaving a wallowing gulf in the fractured party.

Some people in the party, including PDP Chairman, Board of Trustees (BoT), Senator Walid Jibrin, had said that the absence of the duo hindered the resolution of the crisis in the party.

Multiple sources said the call for Ayu’s resignation was being amplified by the members of the camp of Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State, who strongly believed the former Senate President sided with Atiku.

Ayu now has a herculean task to stem the agitation by some party leaders loyal to Wike. They are demanding that he must be relieved of his position for peace to reign, as there was an agreement that if the presidential candidate of the party comes from the North, that the National Chairman, Ayu, equally from the North should resign.

A chieftain of the party said that there was an understanding last year before the national convention of the party that the party presidential ticket and the position of the national chairman must not go to the same part of the country

The party’s Chairman, Board of Trustees, Jibrin, in a telephone interview told THISDAY that though a committee has been put in place to resolve the crisis, nothing meaningful can be achieved until Atiku returns to the country.

“There are many issues relating to campaign strategies, including setting up of committees to handle vital aspects that have been pending. We can’t do anything on these until the presidential candidate is around,” Jibrin said.

He insisted that BoT had already set up a high-level committee, to be led by Atiku and 13 governors of the party to meet with the aggrieved politicians, particularly the Rivers State governor, Wike and his supporters. The Rivers governor lost to Atiku in the May primary election.

It was gathered that with the arrival of Ayu from the United Kingdom, there are lines of reconciliatory meetings to assuage feelings and reconcile all aggrieved members