Promise you'll resign after 2023 poll - PDP BoT to Ayu

The PDP Board of Trustees (BoT) wants the party’s National Chairman, Iyorchia Ayu, to assure members and Nigerians that he will resign his position after the 2023 general elections.

This was part of the resolutions reached at the end of the board’s meeting at the party secretariat on Friday.

The call comes amid the lingering crisis in the party with many aggrieved members led by the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, calling for the resignation of the chairman.

Their demand, they said, is aimed at balancing the lopsidedness in the leadership structure of the party and providing better representation for southern members.

The aggrieved members said since the presidential candidate is from the north, Mr Ayu should give way for a southerner to occupy the position.

To calm aggrieved persons, Walid Jibrin, also a northerner, resigned his position as BoT chairman in September.

The party’s Presidential Campaign Council had denied shelving its campaign activities in order to reconcile with aggrieved members.

The Council’s Director General, Aminu Tambuwal, announced that the PDP will take its campaign train to Kaduna on Monday.

Addressing journalists after the meeting, the BoT acting chairman, Aldolphus Wabara, hinted that the party has resolved to “urge the National Chairman as an eminent leader, to give a firm assurance that he will resign his position after the 2023 election.”

In the same vein, the BoT Chairman said he has been authorised to offer apologies on behalf of all members who feel maligned or aggrieved by the public statements made by its members nationwide that has sharpened the current division in the party.

While he called on party leaders and their supporters to desist from making further inflammatory remarks or granting press interviews, Mr Wabara called on the Chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum, Mr Tambuwal, to convene a meeting of the forum without further delay.

Mr Wabara also asked the party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, to review the membership of the Campaign Council, and other advisory appointments to make it all inclusive.

Leaders of the party were asked to match words with action and where commitments are made, to unconditionally fulfill the same.

Mr Wabara also assured that the BoT will refer some of the recommendations and appropriate action to NEC of the party in due course.