A group within the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Southwest Forum of PDP Stakeholders for Justice, has affirmed support for the Oyo State governor, Engr Seyi Makinde, on his call for the resignation of the party national chairman, Dr Iyorcha Ayu, corroborating his Rivers State counterpart, Mr Nyesom Wike and Chief Olabode George, among others that this is a lasting panacea for peace and eventual victory of PDP at the 2023 Presidential Election.

The group made this declaration on Wednesday in a statement jointly signed by Hon. Banji Okunomo, former spokesperson of PDP in Ondo State and his counterpart in Lagos, Barrister Gani Taofik, just as it justified its position on certain premises.

“We, the above-named forum of the party, wish to affirm our support for the position being canvassed by Governor Seyi Makinde, corroborated by the doggedness of the ‘Wikes’ and the wisdom of the ‘Bode Georges’, as a lasting panacea for peace and eventual victory of our party at the 2023 Presidential election,” the forum said.

The forum, while throwing its support, averred that if Ayu, in his own wisdom, genuinely chose and believed in the emergence of a Northern presidential candidate for PDP and went further to acknowledge Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State as Hero of Democracy, following his withdrawal from the presidential race to pave way for Alhaji Atiku Abubakar’s emergence at the party’s national convention in Abuja months ago, the embattled PDP chairman “should indeed go further to logically and wisely conclude the process that would guarantee the emergence of His Excellency, Atiku Abubakar, as the next president of Nigeria by making other possible sacrifices necessary to achieve that goal.”

According to the forum, taking the bold step would make Ayu himself become more celebrated as PDP’s Hero of Democracy rather than clogging the party’s wheel of progress and creating avoidable crises for the party.

This was just as the party’s stakeholders cautioned former Vice President Abubakar and also PDP presidential candidate, to be wary of the ill and reactionary advice of some people, who they described as traditional moles, “who are insistent on offering opinions capable of jeopardizing the chance God has opened for the PDP in the emerging dispensation.”

“Nigerians are indeed awaiting the PDP as the actual potent alternative government, and God forbids, if this opportunity skips us, Nigerians may never again associate with the PDP. We call for immediate restoration of sanity, confidence, inclusiveness and oneness in the party as a stitch in time saves nine,” the stakeholders warned. (Nigerian Tribune)