A member of the Peoples Democratic Party’s campaign council and new media head, Anthony Ehilebo has explained why it will be very difficult to remove Iyorchia Ayu, the national chairman of the party over agitation by some members of the party.
Recall that some party members including the Rivers State Governor, Iyorchia Ayu have demanded Ayu’s sack over lack of equity.
But the leadership of the party is yet to act on their demand, fueling crisis in the party.
In an exclusive chat with AFRIPOST, Ehilebo insisted the constitution of the party must be followed and that anything short of that will harm the party.
According to Ehiebo who was named a member of the PDP campaign council on Thursday, PDP had sacked their chairman in the past which almost destroyed the party. He argued that it’s out of place to now resolve that Ayu must go considering the backlash that will follow.
According to him:
“He had said to you that he will step down if the party asks him to step down. There was a NEC meeting; the 97th NEC meeting of the party last week. One would have expected that these people who feel aggrieved would have raised the issue for it to be trashed there, but none of them said anything.
“If they were going to make that impact, they would have taken control of the NEC and insisted that he steps down at the NEC. But I didn’t see that happen. There are practices and procedures.
“If you feel you have legitimate agitation, you should have brought it to the NEC. You should not sit on the outside and cast aspersion on the party. A key aspect of the party’s constitution says no member of the party should cause disaffection within the party. And what some of these people are doing has the capacity to cause or create disaffection. For me, they can continue but continue to do the work of the party.
Ehilebo recalls past experiences
The PDP chieftain recalled what happened to the party in the past, stating that:
“Don’t forget that we have been here before. In 2013/2014, a sane state, the Governor, Rotimi Amaechi, insisted that Bamanga Tukur must go, and then brought in Muazu. Muazu led us to the eventual collapse of the PDP in 2015. We cannot take that risk.
“But if you ask me, people who want to do it now feel that because the presidential candidate is under pressure, they can arm-twist him so they can bring their chairman and have control of the party. But this is not about having control of the party.”
What PDP wants
The PDP new media boss said:
“We don’t want an individual to control the party, we want the party to control the party. And even if we are going to have a new chairman, it’s the whole party structure that determines the chairman. So we have to go to the national convention. Do we have the time to do that in the middle of an election? Even if we have the time, there will be fallout, can we manage that? So it’s better the status quo remains until after the election.”