Atiku pledges support for Ayu despite Wike’s withdrawal from campaign

Atiku Abubukar, the contender for the Peoples Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, outlined the requirements for Iyorchia Ayu, the PDP’s national chairman, to resign on Wednesday.

This occurs just hours after the PDP’s crisis intensified on Wednesday when Governor Nyesom Wike’s group resigned from Atiku’s campaign committee.

After a meeting early on Wednesday morning in Port Harcourt, the capital of Rivers State, the members declared their choice to leave the council.

They argued that in order for them to reverse their decision, the PDP National Chairman must step down.

But reacting to the pro-Wike group’s request, the former Vice president maintained that resigning was a sole decision for Ayu to take, adding that no one can force the PDP chairman to resign.

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He, however, added that if Ayu will be removed from office, it must be done in accordance with the law and the party’s constitution.

“On the calls for the resignation or removal from office of our national chairman, however, I must reiterate what I have said severally in public and in private; the decision for Dr. Iyorchia Ayu to resign from office is personal to Dr. Ayu and, neither I nor anyone else can make that decision for him,” Atiku said in a statement on Wednesday.

The statement titled, ‘Let us join hands and move on with the task of nation building’ read further, “As to the calls for the removal of Dr. Ayu from office, however, I will state that, as a committed democrat and firm believer in the rule of law and democratic tenets, and our party being one set up, organized and regulated by law and our constitution, it is my absolute belief that everything that we do in our party must be done in accordance with, and conformity to, the law and our constitution.

“If Dr. Ayu is to be removed from office, it must be done in accordance with the laws that set out the basis for such removal. In any event, you will all recall that the very body that is empowered by law to initiate this removal from office, has already passed a vote of confidence in him.”