Wike warns Ayu against stopping any candidate from contesting

Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike has dared the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Iyorchia Ayu to stop any candidate of the party from contesting an election if he thinks he has the powers to do so.

Governor Wike stated this during a media briefing at his residence in Port Harcourt on Sunday while reacting to a recent comment by Senator Ayu that he has the power to stop any candidate, particularly from Benue State, following the attacks on his person.

Ayu was quoted as saying this in his Tiv dialect while addressing the crowd that welcomed him home in Gboko on Friday. He was also quoted as saying that no one can sack him from office.

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But Wike believes the comment is further damage to the image of the PDP which should be gaining the trust and confidence of the public to rescue Nigeria.

“He has now come into the office, seen money, seen power, now he can open his mouth to say he could have stopped Ortom. And he said he can also stop any contestant now. We dare him. I dare Ayu to stop any contestant if he has what it takes,” he said.

“Why is he (Ayu) not resigning? He is hoping Nigerians would donate money to the party so he would again superintend over that money. He has already finished over N11 billion party primaries money. Account for it, he says the public should go into the account. We say show us the money. Print the account of PDP, and let the world see how you expended the money.

“This is the party all of us have laboured to take over power from ruling All Progressives Congress that has done badly. Then the national chairman would open his mouth to talk about stopping contestants. Ayu shouldn’t dare. He knows he can’t do it, knows he has no such power. He is just playing to the gallery. He tried it in Rivers state, came to manipulate, and tried to put some guber aspirants, but we saw the results. We dealt with him.”