PDP crises: Reconciliation committee begins sitting on Monday

Barring any late hitches, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) National Reconciliation Committee is expected to meet with stakeholders at the zonal level on October 7, as the Olagunsoye Oyinlola-led peace panel begins concerted efforts to avoid further crises within the party.

Recall that the PDP has been embroiled in internal conflict before, during, and after the 2023 elections.

In recent months, several party stalwarts have complained about the seeming inaction on the part of acting National Chairman, Umar Damagum, regarding calls to clamp down on party members engaged in various acts of anti-party activities.

Another reference point is the seemingly intractable crisis in the Rivers State chapter of the party.

Rivers State Governor Siminalayi Fubara and his estranged godfather and Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, have been engaged in a war of attrition over the control of the party structure in the state.

Wike also vowed never to support Governor Fubara’s political aspirations in the future.

“I will never support Fubara in my political life again,” Wike said. “Anybody who knows me knows it’s not about me. People laboured to put up a structure. People laboured; you wouldn’t have even taken the 50th position. I sacrificed to talk to the Ogonis, I sacrificed to talk to several other people that let us go this way. You turned it in that I am asking for N50 billion, N100 billion. You turned up lies against me; I brought you up, put you here. Today, I turned out to be over-demanding.”

Wike described Fubara’s action as unfair, denying the fact that they rose through a platform.

“In every political family, you run elections under people, and people believe that we are all together. We must keep our political structure.”

In his response, Governor Fubara told Wike in clear terms that the state was nobody’s enterprise.

“Because at this time, what is important is to protect the soul of this state. It does not belong to anyone. Rivers State is nobody’s enterprise. So, you have to stand strong and fight.”

Wike had also threatened to “set fire” to PDP-controlled states if the PDP Governors Forum attempted to take over the structure from him and his loyalists and hand the same over to Fubara.

In response, the chairman of the PDPGF, Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State, said no one, including Wike, can set fire to the party in his state.

Ondo State is not left out in the crisis, as Ebenezer Alabi, former state chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ondo State, resigned his membership in the party, citing corruption on the part of party leaders.

Alabi lamented that a large chunk of money sent for mobilisation during the past general elections ended up in the private pockets of these leaders, to the detriment of the party’s victory.

He added that some top party members found it easy to extort money from many aspirants during primary elections and ended up allocating delegates’ votes to them in proportion to the amounts coerced out of them.

The division within the main opposition PDP widened in September as more governors on the party’s platform declared their stance on Damagun continued stay as acting National Chairman.

While Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde had parted ways with the position of Governor Mohammed, who is also the chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum, that the acting chairman of the party be relieved of his position, another governor of the party, Ademola Adeleke of Osun State, has declared support for the party’s constitution on the chairmanship crisis raging in the party and, as a result, aligned with the decision of the PDP Governors’ Forum on the matter.

It remains to be seen how the committee intends to paper over the cracks within party members.