The National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Iyiocha Ayu has declared nobody, including Rivers Governor Nyesom Wike, can force him to resign.
He vowed he will see out his four-year mandate to run the PDP despite calls for his resignation by Wike and his supporters in the party.
The PDP has been in embroiled in an internal crisis after Atiku picked Delta Governor Ifeanyi Okowa as his running mate.
The decision was considered a slap by the Wike’s camp, which has been holding series of meetings within and outside the country and dishing out conditions for settlement which include call for the national chairman’s resignation.
Many of those calling for resignation, according to Ayu, were children when he and other chieftains laboured to form the PDP.
Speaking in an interview on the Hausa service of BBC on Wednesday, Ayu argued the presidential candidacy of Atiku Abubakar does not in any way affect his position as the PDP National Chairman.
In the interview, Ayu said even if the presidential candidate had come from Benue State, it would not have justified the call for his resignation.
According to him: “I stood for election and I won the election and I am fixing the party, I have not stolen anything, I have not committed any offence, we will not allow one person to come and spoil the party for us with frivolous calls and conditions.
“I was elected as PDP chairman for a four-year term and I am not up to one year. So the call for my resignation is uncalled for. The election of Abubakar Atiku as the PDP presidential candidate cannot affect my election as national chairman, even if the candidate is from Benue state, I stood for election and I was voted for by Nigerians”.
When asked in specific terms the call by Wike’s camp’s call for his resignation among other conditions to support Atiku, he said: “All that he is doing does not affect me because I know I am fixing the party. I am doing my work diligently, I have not committed any offense. I have not stolen any money, so there is no reason for my resignation.
‘’When we started the PDP all those ones were children, they were not there, we will not allow one person to become a spoiler, this is our country, so all that is expected of us is to fix the country, provide security and dividends of democracy when we take over power in 2023.’’
