One of the presidential aspirants in the May 28 and 29 Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) primary election and a chieftain of the party, Dele Momodu has said expecting Atiku to sack Ayu who helped him win the PDP primaries was impossible.
Newsonline reports that Dele Momodu, a veteran journalist said the time has come for the governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike to work according to the agreement they had before the primary election, in which they agreed to work for the party no matter who wins the contest.
Momodu added that Wike and his camp must realize that Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the PDP cannot work against the constitution of the party which had a laydown procedure on how a party national chairman can be removed.
He argued that if Atiku tries to work against Ayu who is believed to have helped him win the primary, he would be seen as being autocratic even when he has not got the position of the president.
The publisher of Ovation Magazine stated this on Thursday while speaking on Arise TV’s live programme.
Momodu said, “I believe that the presidential candidate of PDP has every right to take decisions in a game of numbers that he thinks will favour him.
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“The moment we all agreed to participate in that primary election and videos, and that is one of the reasons I am here today talking on behalf of my party. We made promises that whoever emerges as our winner, we shall support, including Governor Wike, said.
” I will liken it to a game of football. A referee was believed to have compromised, so are you going to tell the winner if let say, Man United won the game? Will I expect Man United to be the one to help you remove the referee, it is difficult, that is the truth.
“If the team is your team, Chelsea cannot sack a referee. There is no way Chelsea can sack a referee. It is not the job of the winner to sack the referee that favoured him. Let’s be fair to Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. If, as he claimed, he was supported by Ayu, do you expect him to throw Ayu under the box?”
He further added, “He is only asking for, let us go in the right direction, to the right appropriate authorities who can make this happen. It is a constitutional issue. That is one of the reasons I respect Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. You cannot expect him to be a tyrant. The same people who said we need this, we need that, if he should do that, were the same people who will say he is not even president; he is hiring and firing.
“He is not the owner of the party, and every party member is important and if we love our party, we have only two options. Support your party. If you don’t love it, then state clearly that you don’t want the party. But to insist that because of Ayu, the party must crash down, then I don’t support that.
Newsonline had reported that a group of Southern politicians of Wike’s camp on Wednesday in Portharcourt pulled out from the PDP/ Atiku campaign council citing injustice.
The Camp includes governors, Makinde of Oyo State, Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State, Samuel Ortom of Benue state; former governor, Donald Duke of Cross River State, former governor, Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo state, former governor, Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State; a former deputy national chairman of the PDP, Chief Bode George among other.
The camp is insistent that the national chairman, Iyrochia Ayu must resign from his position for a Southerner to occupy the seat.
According to the group, their demand was based on an earlier promise Ayu made in the build-up to the presidential primary in the house of Bauchi State governor, Bala Mohammed that if a Northerner emerges the presidential candidate of the party, he would resign.
