Senator Iyorchia Ayu, embattled National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), is said to delay convening the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting to save his job that seems to be hanging in the balance.

This is even as the presidential candidate of the PDP, Atiku Abubakar, and the aggrieved governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, held a reconciliation meeting in London, last week.

Others at the meeting were Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State; Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State; Governor Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State; former Cross River State governor, Donald Duke, and Senator Olaka Nwaogu.

Wike, a major stakeholder in the PDP, has been having a running battle with the party’s presidential candidate, Abubakar, and efforts to reconcile both men have not yielded any positive result with just six months to the presidential election.

The rift between Atiku and Wike started after the governor’s ambition of becoming the party’s vice presidential candidate for the 2023 general elections failed following the emergence of Delta State governor, Ifeanyi Okowa, as Atiku’s running mate.

Wike and his associates had demanded the resignation of the national chairman of the party, Iyorchia Ayu, as the first condition for reconciliation, but Atiku and some party leaders refused to accede to the request.

To this end, Daily Independent gathered from a party source that Ayu and the party’s NWC have been planning to avert been asked to resign as the national chairman.

The method, according to the source, is to delay the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting, until the chairman gets substantial number of stakeholders on his side, who will defend him during the meeting, in case those who want him out insist on his resignation.

The source said that Ayu is afraid that if he is not prepared very well before the NEC meeting, he could be kicked out.

The source added that the national chairman has been having constant meetings with an eight-man elders’ committee he initiated when he was elected as the national chairman.

Although the committee, it was gathered, is not an official one, but it was set-up by Ayu as an advisory committee to make his job easy.

However, recent happenings have made Ayu to turn to the committee to save his job. The source said Ayu had on Thursday night met with this committee when Atiku and Wike met in London.

The London meeting, it was gathered, had rattled Ayu, who was afraid that the table might turn against him if Atiku eventually yields to the demand of Wike’s camp. Although it was reported that at the London meeting,

Atiku was able to prevail on Wike and other aggrieved governors to suspend their push for the removal of Ayu, until elections are conducted next year, but some stakeholders in the PDP have not bought into this narrative, as Wike and his allies, it was reported, didn’t fully commit to the request. (Daily Independent)

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