Wike to Ayu: Like Secondus, no vote of confidence’ll save you

Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, has said no vote of confidence can save the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Iyorchia Ayu, from losing his position ahead of the 2023 general election.

It would be recalled that the PDP National Executive Council (NEC), in Abuja on Thursday, passed a vote of confidence in Ayu amid the crisis rocking the main opposition party.

The party’s Board of Trustees chairman, Walid Jibrin (from Nasarawa State), resigned at the NEC meeting, while a former Senate President, Adolphus Wabara (from Abia State), emerged as the BoT chairman.

Governor Wike, who lost the party’s presidential primaries to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar in May, however, maintained that it is injustice for northerners to hold the two major positions of the party.

Ayu hails from Benue State, while Atiku is from Adamawa State.

Speaking in Port Harcourt on Saturday when he received hundreds of defectors from the All Progressives Congress (APC) to the PDP in Rivers State, the governor said: “We don’t fight and go back. If you like, you can have as many votes of confidence, it is not my business; my business is to make sure the right thing is done and the right thing must be done whether today or tomorrow.

“So, let nobody worry himself. If you are dancing, come home and dance, come and mobilise for the party you think that will election. I am here waiting for him. No more 419 in this game. Enough is enough.

“We are only waiting for INEC (Independent National Electoral Commission) for them to blow the whistle. When they blow the whistle, we will know those who are in charge of Rivers State and those who are mere visitors to the state,” Wike stated.

The governor added that the vote of confidence passed in Ayu’s predecessor, Uche Secondus, in April 2021 failed to save him.

He added: “I was listening, watching, they said there is one man they call Secondus. They said he was dancing, celebrating that NEC gave their person a vote of confidence.

“He (Secondus) forgets history that the same NEC through Aliyu Babangida who moved a motion for a vote of confidence supported by the same person – Ndudi Elumelu. They gave him a vote of confidence, what happened? He left office,” Wike said.

The Star