The Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party PDP Katsina state, Alhaji Salisu Yusuf Majigiri has said that the “Ayu Must Go” protest held in Katsina state on Sunday was organised by outsiders and not members of the party in the state.
According to Vanguard, coalition of youths from the North claiming to be PDP members had staged the protest at the entrance of Katsina city carrying placards with the following inscriptions: “Ayu Must Resign’, ‘PDP is Not a Private Company’, ‘We are for justice and fairness’ among others.
When asked to throw more light on the protest, Majigiri said: We are not aware of the protest and no right thinking member of the Katsina PDP will stage any protest of that nature.
“As far as we are concerned, no PDP member in Katsina state is protesting anything. We don’t know them. They are not from the PDP headquarter. They are not from the local government neither are they among the state official of the PDP.
“So who are they? Maybe they were sent from some where to come and create issues that are non-existent in Katsina state PDP.
“We have our presidential candidate that emerged from a valid primary held in Abuja, His Excellency, Atiku Abubakar. He has pointed out that nobody can be removed without following due process or recourse to the constitutional provision of the party.
“In Katsina state, we affirm and support the position of the presidential candidate, his Excellency Atiku Abubakar on the issue of party leadership at the national level.
“So we are one in katsina. We are law abiding PDP members and we are supporting our leadership. We don’t have anybody that is protesting against the leadership of anybody or against the candidature of anybody.”
Shehu Isa Dan’Inna, who spearheaded the alleged northern youths had earlier told some journalists present at the protest that their demand for the immediate resignation of the PDP National Chairman, Senator Iyorchia Ayu is inline with the agreement reached by the leadership of the party that he will resign if a northerner emerged as the presidential flag-bearer of the PDP.
Dan’Inna said:
“It’s almost six months now since Abubakar Atiku emerged as the PDP presidential candidate and Ayu is yet to vacate the secretariat as agreed.
“So, we are calling on Mr. Ayu, as a gentleman and responsible person to step down and stop calling himself the PDP national chairman in line with his promise to resign immediately should the presidential flag-bearer emerge from the north. That is why we are staging this protest.
“PDP is not a northern peoples democratic party nor southern peoples democratic party. We have to be just and united, to enable us to win at various levels in the coming 2023 general election.”
Dan’Inna also appeal to members of the PDP board of trustees among others to save the party by prevailing on Ayu to honour the agreement and vacate the secretariat with immediate effect to avoid jeopardizing the party’s chances in the 2023 general elections.