The efforts to reconcile aggrieved members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have suffered a setback as the National Chairman of the party, Dr. Iyorchia Ayu, has rejected the proposal by the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) for him to hold a private audience with the Governor of Rivers State, Mr. Nyesom Wike.
Wike’s loyalists are insisting that one of the conditions to reconcile the Rivers State governor with the presidential candidate of the party, Atiku Abubakar, is for Ayu to vacate his seat for the southerner.
A meeting held on Friday in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, between the reconciliation teams of Atiku and Wike ended in a deadlock.
Wike’s team, it was learnt, was said to have insisted that Ayu must resign as a condition precedent for further discussion.
The leader of the team led by a former governor of Ondo State, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, told Atiku’s team led by Governor Ahmadu Fintiri of Adamawa State that they should inform the former vice president of this position before further deliberation between the two camps.
It was gathered that the PDP NWC had advised Ayu to visit the Rivers State governor for them to resolve the dispute on a one-on-one basis but the former Senate President rejected the proposal.
Investigation revealed that the NWC in their meeting last Thursday told Ayu that they would accompany him to Port Harcourt if he was not willing to go alone.
According to one of the NWC members who spoke on condition of anonymity, the NWC members who feared that the crisis is becoming personal asked the national chairman to take the path of a leader to see Wike and resolve the crisis which is becoming intractable.
The source further stated that the NWC members volunteered to go with Ayu to meet with the Rivers State governor as a team.
He further stated that Ayu rejected the offer of going with them to see the Rivers State governor or engage him in a private audience.
According to him, Ayu ruled out any private meeting with Wike on the matter, insisting that he has four years to complete his tenure as the party’s national chairman.
Credit: Excerpts from a THISDAY report.
