However, speaking with reporters at his private residence in Port Harcourt on Sunday, Wike said Ayu lacks integrity, describing him as corrupt.
By Jeffrey Agbo
Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike has dared the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Iyorchia Ayu, to stop Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom from contesting the 2023 elections.
Ortom and Ayu are from Benue North West senatorial district. They have been at loggerheads since Atiku Abubakar, the party’s presidential candidate, chose Delta State Governor Ifeanyi Okowa as vice-presidential candidate.
Ortom and a few other PDP governors had wanted Atiku to select Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike as his running mate. Now they want Ayu to resign so there would be balance in ethnicity in the party’s hierarchy.
Addressing the crowd that welcomed him home in Gboko on Friday, Senator Ayu who spoke in the Tiv dialect told his people that he had the power to stop any candidate under the party, particularly in the state to avenge all the attacks on him.
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However, speaking with reporters at his private residence in Port Harcourt on Sunday, Wike said Ayu lacks integrity, describing him as corrupt.
“I dare the National Chairman to stop any contestant if he has what it takes. It is in this country where you say a man is very corrupt and he is trying to talk,” Wike said.
