leadership of the main opposition party in Nigeria has been thrown into
fresh crisis as a chain reaction to anomalies of the national
convention.
Barely one week after its national elective convention, fresh
crisis is brewing in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) over the outcome
of last Saturday’s election.
Not satisfied with the election of the party’s national executive,
some aggrieved candidates and stakeholders have threatened to form a
parallel National Working Committee (NWC).
Despite ongoing post conventions reconciliation process, the
aggrieved candidates, who rejected the results arising from the election
at the national convention, are demanding the immediate release of what
they called the authentic results of the actual votes cast by delegates
at the convention.
They called on the PDP Board of Trustees (BoT) to ensure the
immediate execution of the demands by convening an emergency National
Executive Committee (NEC) meeting within seven days from December 12,
2019.
They further threatened to announce the correct results from the
convention and inaugurate what they called the authentic NWC of the
party should the BoT fail to attend to their demands.
This is contained in a statement signed by the candidates and
stakeholders namely Prince Obi-Nwosu Emmanuel, Hassan Adamu, Chief Dr
Godwin Chinedu Duru, Comrade Edede Franklyn Maduabuchi and Alhaji
Mohammed Abubakar.
Two, out of the five signatories of the statement, Chief Godwin
Chinedu Duru and Comrade Edede Franklyn Maduabuchi contested for the
positions of national organising secretary and national youth leader
respectively at the convention.
Already, the post-convention reconciliation committee of the party,
led by Bayelsa State governor, Hon Seriake Dickson, has started meeting
the aggrieved candidates.
The committee has so far met some of the chairmanship aspirants,
including former Minister of Education, Prof Tunde Adeniran; former
deputy national chairman, Chief Bode George, among others.
The statement by the aggrieved candidates, which was made available to LEADERSHIP yesterday noted: “Sequel
to the 9th December Elective National Convention held at Eagles Square,
Abuja: “1) We the concerned candidates and stakeholders hereby reject
in totality the results released at the 9th December 2017 National
Elective Convention instead of the true results.
“2.) We therefore demand the immediate recall of the purported
results and the release with immediate effect the authentic results of
the actual votes cast by delegates at the convention.
“3.) We hereby call on the chairman of the BOT to ensure the
immediate execution of this demand by convening an emergency NEC meeting
within 7 days from the date of this notice.
“4.) Failure to address item 2 and 3 above, we would have no
option but to announce the correct results and inaugurate the authentic
National Working Committee of our great party, the PDP.
Metuh Pleads With Aggrieved Aspirants To Support Secondus
Meanwhile, former national publicity secretary of the PDP, Olisa
Metuh, said yesterday that the outcome of the party’s national
convention has repositioned it to take over power in 2019.
In a statement he personally signed, Metuh urged aggrieved
aspirants to join hands with the new party leadership headed by Prince
Uche Secondus in providing “a credible opposition that will
continuously provide alternatives and options to the policies and
programmes of the ruling party.”
The former party spokesman described Secondus as “a tried and
tested hand and proven party administrator with exceptional
institutional memory to handle the affairs of the party.
“It is incontrovertible that the activities leading to the PDP
elective National Convention and the outcome thereof have left no one in
doubt that the party has been repositioned to take over power in 2019”, he added.
While underscoring Secondus’ competence for the job, Metuh said,
“It is instructive to note that nobody, not even the worst of critics,
has questioned Prince Secondus’ competence and capacity to lead the
party at this critical time.
“This is essentially owing to the well-established fact that
the PDP witnessed one of her best moments under Prince Secondus as
Acting National Chairman, during which time a lot of reforms were
articulated and implemented.
“It is in that regard that I join our party leaders and other
notable stakeholders to congratulate our National Chairman whose victory
derived not only from his track record of proven service to our party
but also from his very robust and issue-based campaign across all the
states and zones of the federation.
“To other aspirants who did not have the opportunity of being
elected, it must be understood that the outcome of the election does not
in anyway detract from their credibility and their qualification for
offices. What is needed now is for them to join hands with the new
leadership to re-position the PDP for the task ahead.”
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