By Bukola Kayode
There is a simmering crisis in the main opposition political party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Frontline News Online gathered that a large number of stakeholders are aggrieved over the inauguration of the new Ward Executive Committees of the party nationwide, with members blaming the National Chairman, Mr. Uche Secondus and the National Working Committee (NWC) for bungling the exercise.
Going by the constitution of the Party, the tenure of the former exco expired by 11: 59 pm last Thursday, while the new excos were expected to be inaugurated on Friday May 1, in those states where the Congresses had already been concluded before the COVID-19 lockdown.
The crisis generated by the congresses has seen NWC divided with some members accusing the National Chairman of the party, Mr. Uche Secondus of not implementing the decisions of the body aimed at strengthening the PDP.
An unhappy member of the NWC told Frontline News Online: “All is not well in the party right now. Our National Chairman is the only one that can explain the case of the current issues being raised concerning the inauguration of the Ward Excos because we sat as a body and resolved that the exercise should be put on hold in some places such as Ekiti, Kano, Cross Rivers and others where we had some issues to be resolved, but to the surprise of every one, the press statement on the decision was never made public.
“Our findings revealed that the non-release of the statement at the appropriate time gave room for manipulations. For instance, in Ekiti State where we have some issues to resolve, two parallel Excos were inaugurated, one on Thursday and the second one on Friday, we even learnt they went to court over the matter under this lockdown.
“Also note that there are inuaguration of parallel State Excos in Osun, Ondo and of late, Ogun States, all these should be of concern to loyal party members and they should look into these issues before the party collapsed all because of personal interest.
“Our take is that if the National Chairman had allowed the press statement as resolved by the NWC, there would not be room for the shortcomings we are witnessing now, I am afraid if something is not done urgently to rescue the party, we should as well forget 2023.
Also of worry to some members of PDP’s National Working Committee is the issue of suspended PDP House of Representatives members, following the tussle for the leadership of the Minority Caucus. Rep. Ndudi Elumelu emerged the Leader of the Caucus as against the much touted candidature of Rep. Kingsley Chinda.
“Another issue of contention we have been battling with is the indefinite suspension slammed on some of our lawmakers in the House of Representatives. It was supposed to last for a month but look at where we are now. We never tabled their extension at any of our meetings, the Chairman only extended it by fiat through a Press statement”, the source further said.
“Anyway, some of us kicked against it because of the realities on ground. PDP is not the only party that makes up the Minority in the House, others met and they elected their leaders which were ratified by the House. We think that those who are representing us are doing very excellent based on their brilliant performances, they are our first eleven, we don’t know why the Chairman is looking the other way
“The time has come when the Chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum, Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal, a former Speaker of the House of Representatives should wade into the matter before the affected lawmakers will be frustrated to dump the Party”, the source explained.
However, Secondus and the National Secretary, Sen. Umaru Ibrahim Tsauri, in a joint statement on Saturday, reacted to the inauguration of organs of the Ogun state chapter of the party, dissociating the the NWC of the Party from such an illegal action.
The statement read in part: “The attention of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has been drawn to some media publication, especially, the online media concerning a purported inauguration of certain unknown persons as State Officers of the Party in Ogun State on Friday, May 8, 2020
“We want to advise members of the public, especially, the teeming members of our great Party in Nigeria and Ogun State in particular, that the Peoples Democratic Party has not conducted any congress for the election of the Party officers at any level of the Party: Ward, LGA Chapter and or State, in Ogun State.”
Similarly, leadership of the party also appointed a Caretaker Committee for its Ekitii State Chapter, led by Sen. Hosea Agboola, following the emergence of two parallel Ward Executives inaugurated last week.
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