The Coalition of the Northern Nigeria Peoples Democratic Party Youth Movement has waded into the discord between the party and Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria, the Coalition group staged a protest on Friday at the party Secretariat in Katsina demanding the resignation of the national chairman, Iyorchia Ayu.
This is coming on the reels of the media chat Wike had on Friday where he revealed that Ayu had promised to zone the national chairman to the southeast.
The Rivers State helmsman had said the party promised to zone the national chairman to the south, following the emergence of a northerner, Atiku Abubakar, as its presidential candidate.
Taking a stand with Wike, the Spokesperson of the coalition, Mr. Shehu Isa-Dan’Inna during the protest said PDP is not a northern party, but a party for everyone, either from the north or south.
He said, “The PDP is not a Northern Peoples Democratic Party nor Southern Peoples Democratic Party, we have to be just and united, to enable us to win at various levels in the coming 2023 general elections. If the PDP’s internal crisis persists, I do not think we will win the presidential election.
“For the PDP to project transparency as it had always done, the North should not hold about three key positions in the party.”
Isa-Dan’Inna, who noted that some PDP governors and leaders particularly from southern Nigeria were insistent that for fairness, northern Nigeria should not hold both the party’s presidential ticket and national chairmanship position, said the country needed the PDP at the helms of its affairs for overall wellbeing of Nigerians.
“Wike is also strong, we don’t want to divide our votes, that is why we are calling on Sen. Iyorchia Ayu to resign.
“It will be better for us to lose Ayu as the PDP Chairman and clinch the president seat than to leave him and lose the presidency,” he added.
He further urged the PDP Board of Trustees and National Working Committee to be just and fair in order to get the party to victory.
“If Ayu keeps to his promise, victory will surely be ours and Nigerians will smile again, the party leaders must act to salvage Nigerians, we don’t want to continue suffering,” he said.