Ayu meets Bala Mohammed, seeks counsel over PDP lingering crisis

Iyorchia Ayu, national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has met with Bala Mohammed, governor of Bauchi state, over the lingering crisis in the party.

Ayu led a delegation of some PDP chieftains to Bauchi state on Saturday.

The national chairman was accompanied by Aminu Tambuwal, governor of Sokoto, who is the party’s director-general of the presidential campaign council, and Sule Lamido, former governor of Jigawa.

The meeting was held behind closed doors.

Over the past few months, the PDP has been enmeshed in internal wranglings over the demand for the resignation of Ayu by five aggrieved governors of the party.

The aggrieved governors, led by Nyesom Wike of Rivers, have insisted that they will only participate in the party’s presidential campaign if Ayu resigns.

Speaking before the meeting, Ayu said the meeting is to brief the Bauchi governor on recent developments in the party and seek counsel.

Ayu said Mohammed is one of the major national stakeholders who has contributed to the development of the party.

“We are here to brief you on some of the developments that are going on in the party and to seek your wise counsel because you’re not just the governor of Bauchi, you’re a leader in this country,” the national chairman was quoted by NAN.

“You are experienced in all the places you served, and we thought people like you in this campaign, from time to time, we need to come around, consult and brief you on some things.”

On his party, the Bauchi governor said issues affecting the party and his roles in the presidential campaign were discussed during the meeting.

“We have discussed issues affecting the party, especially my area as a vice chairman of the presidential campaign council in charge of the north,” he said.

“So, they came with issues regarding some grey areas that we crossed the t’s and dotted the i’s and it’s not for public consumption.

“Certainly, it is part of closing rank, discussing issues in which the national chairman with humility came down to Bauchi with the director-general himself and of course our leader.”