Ayu’s Resignation: Ikyur Speaks on Ortom’s Position

Nathaniel Ikyur, the chief press secretary to the governor of Benue State, has said Governor Samuel Ortom helped Iyorchia Ayu win the position of PDP National Chairman, therefore is unable to work to have him removed from that position.

Ikyur, in a statement on Monday, said, “It is an open secret that Governor Ortom worked tirelessly, alongside other prominent Benue citizens, to ensure that Dr. Ayu gets elected as the national chairman of our great party even against all odds. He cannot, therefore, turn around to work against him to be removed from office.

“In the run-up to the National Convention, Governor Ortom got the backing of many leaders of the PDP who believed his sense of judgment when he vouched for the integrity and capacity of Dr Iyorchia Ayu to lead and rebuild the PDP to victory and rescue Nigeria from the misrule of the APC maladministration

“That is why Ayu was returned unopposed by the Northern caucus of the party and got elected as the national chairman of the PDP at the party’s convention.”

The governor’s assistant was responding to a claim made by Jemgbagh Development Association, an Abuja-based group, that Ortom is to blame for Ayu’s current troubles in the PDP.

Since the former vice president Atiku Abubakar won the PDP presidential primaries, Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State and his allies have repeatedly demanded that Ayu resign so that a southerner may take over the presidency.

Wike’s camp had contended that northerners couldn’t serve as both the party’s flagbearer and national chairman at the same time. This has since caused differences in the party. Meanwhile, Wike had already stated his withdrawal from the campaign of the party, ahead of the 2023 race.