The Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, on Saturday said no vote of confidence can save the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Iyorchia Ayu, just as the assurance tool passed by the party’s National Executive Committee in April 2021 failed to save Ayu’s predecessor, Uche Secondus.

“I was listening, watching, they said there is one man they call Secondus. They said he was dancing, celebrating that NEC gave their person a vote of confidence.

“He (Secondus) forgets history that the same NEC, through Aliyu Babangida, who moved a motion for a vote of confidence, supported by the same person – Ndudi Elumelu. They gave him a vote of confidence, what happened? He left office,” Wike said in Port Harcourt on Saturday when he received hundreds of defectors from the All Progressives Congress (APC) to the PDP in the oil-rich state.

Wike and Secondus are said to be kinsmen but a feud had thwarted their relationship last year and the Rivers governor had demanded his resignation as PDP chairman. Secondus’ tenure was later truncated last August when a court sacked him.

Speaking on Saturday, Wike challenged Secondus to come back to Rivers to mobilise support for the PDP ahead of the 2023 elections and insisted that Ayu must exit the chairmanship of the party for a southerner.

Source: Channels TV