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Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, has made fresh allegations against the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Iyorchia Ayu.
Mr Wike spoke on Friday during a live media chat in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
He accused Mr Ayu of receiving double pay for a single project for the party.
“If we release what we have, Ayu’s children will go to him and say we are no longer your children,” he said.
The Rivers governor had accused the PDP national chairman in September of collecting N1 billion as bribe from a PDP presidential aspirant from Lagos ahead of the party’s primary in May.
Asked why he thinks Mr Ayu was yet to respond to the allegation, Mr Wike said, “There cannot be any comment. He (Ayu) cannot say anything.
“In fact, let me also tell you, Ayu collected N100 million from a governor that he was going to renovate our democratic institute and then he (Ayu) went back to the (PDP) NWC and took the same N100 million naira for doing the same work.”
The governor challenged Mr Ayu to deny it and he would reveal more details about the double pay.
“A leader must be a man of integrity. You are presenting a man (Ayu), the chairman of the party, who has no integrity to be the one to lead the campaign to take the reigns of governance,” he added.
Mr Wike, who was a presidential aspirant of the PDP, is leading a group of party chieftains who are demanding the resignation of Mr Ayu, in order to achieve a “regional balance” since Messrs Ayu and the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, are both from the north.
But Mr Ayu has insisted he would not resign because he was elected for a four year-term.
Mr Wike, during the Friday media chat, claimed that Mr Ayu promised to relinquish his position if a presidential candidate of the party emerges from the north, and not when the candidate wins the general election to emerge president.
He said the party found itself in the leadership crisis because of its failure to zone the party’s presidential ticket to southern Nigeria in line with the party’s constitution.
“The two major positions have now gone to the same (northern) zone. We said let’s play the role that everyone will take his cake. Take and let me take and there will be peace, there will be unity. But if you take everything, that’s where you have a problem.
“What we’re contending with is that the chairman (should) go to the South (because) the presidential candidate is in the north. They are denying my people their own right. It will be foolish of me from the South to abdicate that position of chairmanship,” he said.
“Nobody should talk to me about the interest of the party. You have to talk to me about the interest of my people. Our integrity is at stake. Zone the chairmanship position to anywhere you want in the South. But let it be that the chairmanship position is in the South.”
The governor said the position of governor of Delta State, Ifeanyi Okowa, as the vice-presidential candidate of the party was not a “a major position.”
He faulted those arguing that the national chairmanship position of the party should be zoned to the South if Mr Atiku emerges president in 2023.
“If after the election, Atiku wins the presidential election, what role will the national chairman play again?” he said.
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