Did Ayu lose his polling unit, LGA as claimed by Wike?

Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State in a recent television interview affirmed his support for the suspension of the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Iyorchia Ayu.

According to him, the people rejected PDP because Ayu refused to resign from the party’s chairmanship position.

“I am in support of the suspension. In fact, if he (Ayu) had left before now, they would have said he has left and that was why the PDP failed the election,” the governor said.

“First of all, if you are a member of the party, will you be happy with the way the party is today? It is only in this country that you see someone who has failed woefully and without any conscience would still like to occupy the position.

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“Those in his ward from Benue are angry; why were they angry before now? Ayu ought to have left that office. People were saying we were pushing for Ayu to leave and that we had a hidden agenda to make PDP fail.

“Ayu remained and PDP didn’t win, you lost your unit as national chairman, you lost your local government,” Wike said.

Verdict: Partly true

Verification

Daily Trust on Sunday checks show that Ayu won his polling unit for Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the PDP during the presidential elections. However, he didn’t win the entire local government.

Daily Trust on Sunday’s report on how major political parties’ stakeholders fared at their respective polling units in the 2023 polls showed that PDP won in Ayu’s polling unit.

The election result at Mkovour Market PU 10 in Ipav District, Gboko Local Government Area of Benue State, where Ayu voted, showed that the PDP won the majority of the votes cast.

In the presidential election, Atiku scored 190 votes, leaving APC and LP with seven and four votes, respectively.

For the senatorial election, PDP had 192 votes while APC and LP polled five votes each. PDP polled 196 in the House of Representatives, leaving APC with 9 votes and LP 1.

At the local government level, Gboko LGA election results showed that the APC won with 35,149 votes, followed by LP with 18,615 votes. PDP had 13,901 votes.

Background

Senator Iyorchia Ayu had stepped aside as the chairman of the party last month following his suspension by the party executives in his ward.

Ayu was replaced by the Deputy National Chairman (North), Umar Iliya Damagum.

Recall that a High Court in Makurdi, the Benue state capital, had restrained embattled Ayu from parading himself as chairman of the party pending the determination of the substantive suit which has been adjourned to April 17, 2023 for hearing.

A member of the PDP from Benue, Terhide Utaan, who is the plaintiff before Justice W. I Kpochi, obtained the order restraining Ayu from parading himself as national chairman of the party.

However, Justice Wilfred Kpochi adjourned the suit to April 28, 2023.

Conclusion

Checks confirmed that PDP won in Ayu’s Polling Unit, but lost at the local government, as such Wike’s claim is not completely true.

This Fact Check is produced in partnership with the Centre for Democracy and Development CDD