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| FL: Nyesom Wike, Atiku Abubakar, Seyi Makinde |
Amid the crisis rocking the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, the Board of Trustees (BoT) has banned Rivers State governor, Nyesom Wike, and other party leaders, from making further inflammatory remarks or granting any press interviews on the crisis.
This is just as the PDP National Chairman, Iyorchia Ayu said the allegations against him by Wike were all false.
The BoT had set up a six-member special committee led by the acting Chairman, Senator Adolphus Wabara, to visit and reconcile aggrieved members of the party.
The report of the committee was submitted to BoT members who met on Friday to take a decision on the lingering crisis.
Ayu is a member of the BoT. Wabara, who read a communiqué issued at the end of the meeting, called on the Chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum to convene a meeting of the governors without further delay.
It, however, advised “all the leaders of the party to match words with action, and where commitments are made to unconditionally fulfill same.”
The communiqué called on the National Chairman “as an eminent leader, to give a firm assurance that he would resigns his position after the 2023 elections.
“In the same vein, the BoT Chairman has been authorised to offer apologies on behalf of all members, who feel maligned or aggrieved by the public statements made by its members across the country that has sharpen the current division in the party.”
The BoT also called on Atiku to review appointments of members of the campaign council and other advisory appointments to make it all inclusive.
"The BoT will refer some of these recommendations for noting and appropriate action to NEC of our party in due course,” the communiqué added.
Ayu, who spoke for the first time since the crisis in the party took a different turn, said the allegation that he collected N1 billion from a presidential aspirant by the Rivers State governor, was false. Ayu explained that the party had funding difficulties, when the present NWC assumed office.
According to him, Atiku Abubakar, who is now the PDP presidential candidate, “suggested that we should take a loan from the bank, and the owner of that bank is a member of the party; he has even left the party.
“The party never took any loan from anybody. Any money advanced to the party was declared before the NWC and handed over to the National Treasurer.
“All our accounts are up to date and we promise to publish the accounts at the end of the year.”
Ayu also defended the N100 million for the revival of the PDI, disclosing that the PDI was housed in a portacabin, but the NWC “hired an appropriate place in Asokoro.
"We have furnished it, renovated it.” According to him, the money was given to the party by one of its governors, but denied that the NWC released same amount for the same purpose.