Call For Mu‘azu Resignation, Fayose Accused For Biting Fingers That Fed Him

Left with no choice President Goodluck Jonathan had to step into a dispute between his aides and the National Working Committee, NWC, of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

The President’s intervention during a closed-door meeting with the NWC members followed strident calls for the resignation of the national chairman of the party, Alhaji Adamu Mu‘azu and other NWC members for purportedly leading the party to its first defeat in a presidential election.

The president’s intervened yesterday, matched by calls from senior party members who also called on the warring members to pull away from the acrimony that has seen NWC members openly blame the President’s handpicked campaign managers for causing the defeat of the President in the election.

The call for ceasefire nonetheless, the crisis continued to smoulder with Chief Bode George, a former deputy national chairman of the party calling for the resignation of Mu‘azu from office.

Besides, Governor Ayo Fayose of Ekiti State stuck to his guns on the demand for the resignation of the NWC members, an assertion that drew the sharp response of a senior official of the NWC who reproached Fayose for biting the very fingers that fed him in his time of need.

The President’s plea for peace was matched by a number of stakeholders, including some members of the Board of Trustees, BoT, such as Chief Bode George, Chief Ebenezer Babatope, Chief Don Etiebet, the Lagos State chairman of the party and a retired Commissioner of Police, Alhaji Abubakar Tsav.

The president’s plea forced the national chairman, Mu‘azu, to withdraw a statement in which he had alleged that presidential aides were determined to destroy his legacy through their open conflict with the party officials.

A senior official of the NWC, however, replied a swipe by Governor Fayose earlier yesterday in which he reiterated his call for the dissolution of the NWC.

“It really hurts, I mean it hurts for Ayo Fayose to ask us to resign, considering the risks we took to ensure that we gave him a level playing ground to contest even when some members thought that he had no right being in the race,” the NWC official said yesterday.