Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State worked for Iyorchia Ayu to become the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party and therefore can’t work to remove him from office, the Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Nathaniel Ikyur, has said.
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 maladministrarion.
“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 aide was reacting to a statement credited to an Abuja-based group, Jemgbagh Development Association, alleging that Ortom has a hand in the current travails of Ayu in PDP.
For months after the PDP presidential primary won by former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State and his allies including serving and former governors in the PDP have consistently called for Ayu to step down for a southerner to occupy the office.
Wike’s group had argued that northerners can’t be the flagbearer of the party and the national chairman simultaneously.