Exclusive: North-West, South-West in Epic Battle to Succeed Ayu

The suspension of the Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Senator Dr. Iyorchia Ayu, and the future of the Party have become an emergent concern of members and stakeholders, in the last few days.

The Source who spoke to DDNews in confidence expressed that since even nature abhors a vacuum, there was the imperative to find a successor to the suspended Chairman, quickly as possible, saying the move is because of the many challenges facing the Party at this time, especially the legal contestation of the outcome of the February 25 Presidential election.

“We cannot operate without a Chairman at this time because the cases we have in court call for us to have a leader urgently, or a recognized figure-head that can coordinate the affairs of the party at this time when we need a cohesive NEC to rally every member for the tasks ahead”, he said.

The situation created by the sudden suspension of Dr. Ayu has upended the stakes, leading to a turf battle from another tangent on which region to produce the Chairman and also, addressing the perceived inequity that’s the subject of the internal crisis for a long time now.

However, party stakeholders and leading voices are insisting that the party should respect its constitution and follow due process in producing the next leader of the party.

The PDP Constitution stipulates that the National Executive Committee (NEC) should convene a meeting where constitutional provisions will be followed to avoid any pitfalls.

The Party constitution clearly states that the removal or death of a Chairman before the end of the tenure, should, ipso facto, qualify the zone to invariably continue the remainder of the term.

However, it is curious that up till now, no one from the suspended Chairman’s zone has indicated interest, openly or privately, it seems. This has led to the emergence of two schools of thought equally lined with party stakeholders.

One group is calling for the Party to convene a special convention to choose a new Chairman, while the other is clamoring to just offer the chairmanship position to North-West or South-West; of which both positions were not contemplated until the sudden development that befell the former Chairman.

The leaders and governors of the two zones angling to succeed Ayu, are doing a lot of back-channel horse trading and realignment of forces to accomplish the goal.

NOTE: This is a developing story and may be updated.