Sheriff splits Abia State PDP, Onuigbo refutes development

The leadership crisis rocking Nigeria’s main opposition party, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has spread to the Abia State chapter with two factions emerging.

This is coming in the heels of the dilemma that that state has been thrown into in the past few weeks over the governorship controversy occasioned by the Abuja High Court judgment that ordered the removal of the state governor, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu from office.

Although it is yet to be established the correlation between the governorship tussle and the emergence of the two factions, it should be noted that the persons contending with Ikpeazu are all members of PDP.

There had been one unit of PDP in the state chaired by Chief Johnson Onuigbo and it was loyal to the Senator Ahmed Makarfi-led National Caretaker committee of the party. Onuigbo state executive was elected on May 10, 2016 at the party state congress.

Recent development showed that another faction loyal to ousted national chairman of PDP, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff has emerged. Chidi Nwosu, the immediate past member of the State House of Assembly who represented Umuahia South constituency, leads it.

Nwosu has Mr. Emeka Ejiogu and Chukwuemeka Osoagbaka, former members of the state Assembly, among others, backing him.It was reported some days back that Nwosu led some members of his faction on a solidarity visit to Senator Sheriff at Abuja during which they urged him to cause a ‘genuine’ state Congress to be held in Abia state. They argued that the one held on May 10th 2016 that produced the Onuigbo-led state executive was a ‘sham.’

Apparently embarrassed by the visit of the Nwosu group to Sheriff and their call for a repeat of the state Congress, the Onuigbo led state executive met last Tuesday and condemned the Onuigbo’s action describing it as illegal “We condemned in its entirety the unwanted, illegal and unacceptable recalcitrance of a group of political dissidents and rascals led by Messers Chidi Nwosu of Umuahia South, Emeka Ejiogu of Umuahia North and Chukwuemeka Osoagbalka of Ikwuano,” the Onuigbo executive said in a communiqué jointly endorsed by the 20 members.

They decried the description of the congress that brought them to office as a sham asserting that it was democratically conducted. Besides, they said that the Nwosu faction’s utterance depicted utter irresponsibility, disloyalty and an after-thought.

According to them, the Nwosu led group’s misdirected and illegal visit to the erstwhile National Chairman of the PDP, was a further display of indiscipline, gross misconduct and disloyalty of extreme order, claiming that the Abia PDP remained united, intact and has no division whatsoever within its rank and file.

Other highpoints of the communiqué were that “the Officers of the state PDP that emerged from the state congress of 10th May 2016 headed by Chief Johnson Onuigbo remains the only authentic executive committee in the state as matter of fact and law.

“That the said State Executive, in compliance with the National Convention held on the 21st May 2016 has its confidence and loyalty to the National Caretaker Committee headed by Senator Ahmed Makarfi and that in the same vein expressed its unalloyed loyalty and confidence in Governor Okezie Ikpeazu as the state PDP leader.”

Reacting to the views raised in the communiqué, Nwosu said in an interview with The Guardian that his group which he tagged “positive change group in the state PDP” felt sidelined in the party and that “since the sham state executive emerged, the party has made no progress.”

His words: “The scenario is that there are two factions of the PDP presently in Abia state. A true state Congress to be directed and overseen by the Acting National Chairman Senator Ali Modu Sheriff is in the offing”.In addition, he claimed that party executives were being constituted to oversee the party at all levels in the state pending the awaited conduct of elections to elect substantive officers for Ward, Local Government Areas, Zonal and State Chapters.