Immediate past Deputy National Publicity Secretary of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Prince Diran Odeyemi, yesterday, asked National Chairman, Iyorchia Ayu, to immediately resign, otherwise, the chances of the party winning the forthcoming presidential election could be jeopardised.

Odeyemi made this demand in a statement he personally signed, stressing that over one week after former Vice President Atiku Abubakar emerged as PDP’s presidential candidate, Ayu has no moral right to retain his position as chairman.

He said: “Ayu, as a matter of urgency and if indeed he wants PDP to win the presidential election, should resign and give opportunity for the emergence of a southern chairman as a way of maintaining national balance and a sense of belonging by all.”

He noted that PDP in southern Nigeria is already feeling uneasy with Ayu, a northerner, as chairman and Atiku Abubakar, another northerner, as a presidential candidate both at the helms of PDP affairs.

According to the party stalwart, “It will be difficult for PDP members to campaign in the south, especially with the northern political conspiracy openly displayed at our convention. He must go.”

He said many members of the party in the north have started canvassing that Ayu retains his seat as chairman until after the 2023 presidential election. This, he said, “will be too dangerous, and a hindrance to PDP winning the 2023 election.”

Odeyemi added: “We don’t know what to tell our people in the south again about the combination of northerners, Atiku Abubakar and Iyorchia Ayu, that can convince them to support and cast their votes for us.

“I am sure Ayu himself knows, and why he appears not to have resigned still baffles us. It is now a matter of urgency that we should tell our national chairman to quit before his hold on power begins to affect the fortune of our party.” (The Guardian)

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