The People’s Democratic Party’s (PDP) Board of Trustees (BoT) has asked Iyorchia Ayu to reassure party members that he will step down following the 2023 general election.
The recommendations to Ayu are a part of the decisions made by the PDP BoT at its meeting on Friday in Abuja.
Adolphus Wabara’s BoT recently started making “reconciliatory visits” to unhappy party members, particularly those who supported Nyesom Wike, the governor of Rivers.
Following the party’s nomination of former vice president Atiku Abubakar for president, Wike and his supporters have been calling for Ayu’s resignation.
The argument used to demand Ayu’s resignation is that the national chairman and the party’s presidential candidate cannot hail from the same area.
However, some party members rejected the call for Ayu to step down, arguing that the national chairman can only step down following the February presidential election if Abubakar wins.
Wabara quoted from the statement that was made public following the meeting on Friday that the “BoT called on all party leaders and persons close to them to desist forthwith from making further inflammatory remarks or press interviews.”
He claimed that as soon as possible, the BoT has requested that a meeting of the PDP governors’ forum be called.
He claims that the party has instructed all of its leaders to “match words with action and where commitments are made, to unconditionally fulfill same.”
He also said the BoT “urged the national chairman as an eminent leader, to give a firm assurance that he will resign his position after the 2023 election”.
“In the same vein, the BoT chairman has been authorised to offer apologies on behalf of all members who feel maligned or aggrieved by the public statements made by its members nationwide that have sharpened the current division in the party,” the communique reads.
“The BoT also called on the presidential candidate to review its membership of the presidential campaign council, and other advisory appointments to make it all-inclusive.”
