PDP has no leadership change plan, governors insist
There is no plan to appoint a new Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) national chairman at the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting today, governors on the platform of the party said yesterday.
According to the PDP Governors’ Forum, led by Bauchi State Governor Bala Mohammed, any plan to hijack the platform by any individual or group would also be resisted.
The governors, who held a pre-NEC meeting at the Akwa Ibom State Lodge in Abuja, said while they never discussed the change of leadership as being speculated by the public, they resolved to tackle the lingering party challenges in accordance with the PDP constitution.
During the meeting, news filtered that Ayu had withdrawn his case against the PDP while the party has also withdrawn an appeal filed against the suspended chairman.
The governors’ parley preceded the meeting of National Caucus, which held last night.
Today, the PDP Board of Trustees (BoT) and NEC will meet at the party’s National Secretariat in Abuja.
Apart from Governor Mohammed, who read the communique, other PDP governors’ at yesterday’s meeting were the Forum’s Vice chairman, Siminalayi Fubara (Rivers State), Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri (Adamawa), Umo Eno (Akwa Ibom), Douye Diri (Bayelsa) and Sheriff Oborevwori (Delta).
Also at theeeting we’re Deputy Governors Omobayo Godwins (Edo) and Ifeanyi Ossai (Enugu).
Consistent with the Forum’s position, the National Working Committee (NWC) also passed a vote of confidence in Ambassador Umar Damagum, who has been acting as national chairman, following Senator Iyorchia Ayu’s suspension.
Forum: No plan for new leadership
Mohammed emphasised that the change of party leadership was not on the agenda, stressing that the party cannot violate its constitution.
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He said:”We are looking forward to doing everything within the constitutional provision of the party. So, we are not here to discuss about change of leadership.
“We are talking about resolving all the issues and going forward, so that at the end of the day, the timeliness allowed in the constitution for Congresses and what have you, would have been done.
“But certainly, the public are free to permutate, to discuss and of course, PDP NEC will decide on some of these issues.”
Mohammed: “There are no contendig forces. What is NEC? NEC is the PDP Governors Forum and other stakeholders. So, we are just a portion of NEC; we cannot talk on behalf of NEC until we get there.
“NEC will take decisions on such issues, not the governors. I know the governors normally take leadership position, but we have an acting person in leadership capacity leading the party and NEC will decide whether it is to fill the vacancy, looking at the legal implications of doing that and knowing that they are so many lingering litigations in court. “Of course, we don’t want to disparage ourselves, because we know that they are some mauraders hiding somewhere trying to factionalise our party and take one faction to go and do coalition.”
