Wobbly opposition: PDP crisis gets messier as LP battles ‘internal bleeding’

• 60 PDP reps threaten pullout, demand resignation of Acting National Chairman Damagum
• LP members protest meddlesomeness as NLC okays takeover of structures

Crises in the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Labour Party (LP) slipped a notch lower, yesterday.This was as dozens of PDP House of Representatives members demanded the immediate resignation of Acting National Chairman, Umar Iliya Damagum.

On the LP trench, some party members staged a protest, condemning what they termed ‘meddlesomeness’ by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC).

The protest, however, coincided with an approval by the NLC’s political commission to take over all LP structures nationwide.

If their demand is not met, the PDP lawmakers threatened: “We the opposition lawmakers’ coalition from PDP in the National Assembly will be left with no other options but to suspend participating in the party’s activities and seek new political relationship, where decisions in that party will not be taken in the secretariat of another political party.”

Spokesperson of the 60-strong group, Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere, who briefed reporters at the National Assembly complex in Abuja, accused Damagum of working in cahoots with the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to undermine the PDP.

The lawmakers called for a “credible party leader from the North Central to be confirmed chairman, in line with the zoning formula enshrined in the constitution,” and that the National Executive Council (NEC) ensure that the list of caretaker committees in Rivers State and other 10 states, allegedly tampered with by Damagum and his APC friends, are reversed and announced as originally agreed.

They contended that using serving APC members in Rivers and other states to lead the party’s caretaker committees at state, council and ward levels is the highest act of political provocation and impunity, and would be resisted vehemently.

The lawmakers said: “APC officers cannot emerge as our officials in Rivers or any of the 10 states with the alleged imposition of APC interest. Let the world know that why they are hell-bent on imposing APC officials as our party caretaker members is to fulfill a planned bigger plot, which will see so-called PDP members, who, in reality, are APC members, decamping en masse into APC as PDP officials, which will see the imposed executives of our party in over 11 states, including Rivers, joining APC on their set date just to embarrass our party; hence our resistance that we will fight with everything in us, and to any length to resist that plan.

“God save the PDP! Just imagine imposing card-carrying members of APC in the entire PDP structures in Rivers and 10 other states. God! How did we get here?”
They called on the NEC to review the financial wherewithal of the party to pay its national secretariat staff and discharge other responsibilities and investigate an allegation that pro-APC supporters were funding the Damagum-led PDP.

They further urged the NEC to set up a committee to investigate all anti-party activities from 2023 and mete out appropriate sanctions that should serve as a deterrent.

The lawmakers’ statement read: “Ward executives where people were involved in anti-party activities or are still involved, like Cross River, Rivers, Benue, Abia, Ondo, Kano, Kogi, Edo, etc, should immediately announce the expulsion of all the affected without fear or favour.

“This must be done immediately. Any executive that cannot do this should be removed by members in those wards, and new officers who dare to enforce the provisions of our party’s constitution should be emplaced to do the needful.

“But this is the last of the last paths where every other reasonable effort at resolution fails. PDP is a great party that means well for Nigeria. PDP will emerge from this challenge stronger and will, one day, in the near future, take over the government of Nigeria again and return the country to its glory days.”

It added: “In a related development, we have now received credible intelligence of a plot to use the Federal High Court to secure a secret ex parte order that will attempt to legalise the illegal extension of the about-to-expire tenure of council chairmen in Rivers State, which was carried out by former members of the State Assembly who lost legitimacy the very moment they decamped to the APC, knowing full well that there was no crisis in the PDP; hence their seats as lawmakers became vacant immediately the remaining legitimate members declared them so.

“We are raising this alarm in view of the legitimacy of the desperate move, which, if not halted, can lead to anarchy and collapse of constitutional governance. We want to call on the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice Omotosho, and other eminent judges to be aware of this plot that those behind it are already celebrating, that the ex parte order is in their pocket awaiting release to the media, even when the case has not been heard. To our respected Chief Judge, we are compelled to publicly bring this shocking development to your attention in the interest of justice and preservation of the image of our nation’s judiciary.”

Also, the leader of the PDP National Youth Frontier, Usman Austin Okai, maintained that the chairman must come from North Central.

Okai alleged there was an underground plot to hold the PDP down and weaken it ahead of the 2027 general election by installing Damagum as substantive chairman, following the exit of Iyorchia Ayu.

In a signed statement, he said: “We find ourselves at a crossroads, where the very essence of our party is under threat. We are all witnesses to the recent attempts to undermine the democratic process within our beloved party. The position of national chairman, a position that rightfully belongs to the North Central region, is now being challenged. Let me be clear, you cannot change the rules in the middle of the game.”

He explained that Chief Solomon Lar was replaced by Barnabas Gemade; Gemade by Audu Ogbeh; and Ogbeh by Ahmadu Ali in December 2004, after which the position moved to the South East, where Vincent Ogbulafor was elected and later replaced by Okwesilieze Nwodo. Thereafter, it moved to the North East, from Bamanga Tukur to Adamu Muazu, and Modu Sheriff.

Okai said: “Ayu was duly elected in a meticulously organised national convention. His mandate was given to him by the collective will of party members, and it is not for any individual, from any corner of our great nation, to swoop in and seize what is rightfully his.

“The principles of democracy dictate that the will of the people must prevail. It is a fundamental tenet of our party; one that we have fought for, bled for, and sacrificed for. We cannot allow it to be trampled upon by the ambitions of a few.

“To those who seek to subvert the will of the people, I say this; you may have power, you may have influence, but you do not have the right to disregard the voice of party members. You do not have the right to disregard the democratic process that we hold dear.”

He added: “Let us not forget that this is not just about one man or one region. This is about the soul of our party. This is about the principles that we hold dear. This is about the future of democracy in our nation.”

Meanwhile, in another political drama, Labour Party (LP) members loyal to National Chairman, Julius Abure, yesterday, stormed the venue of the Political Commission’s Stakeholders Meeting of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) to protest the latter’s meddlesomeness in LP’s internal affairs.

Recall that the chairman of the political commission, Theophilus Ndubuaku, had led the congress to picket LP’s national headquarters, amid the claim NLC that Abure was not properly elected.

The protest came barely one week after the NLC leadership, in an open letter, accused the National Working Committee (NWC) of proposing a ‘secret’ national convention in Umuahia, the Abia State capital, on March 27, that would re-elect Abure to continue running LP as a ‘sole administrator’.

The convention was eventually held at Nnewi, Anambra State, where Abure was returned. The NLC political commission, however, shunned the event.
Also, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has since disowned the convention.

At yesterday’s protest, LP members bore placards with inscriptions such as: ‘On Abure’s mandate we stand!’, ‘NLC leave Abure alone!’, ‘Nnewi National Convention is valid!’

This came as NLC called for a transition committee that would midwife the birth of new LP structures at national, state and local council levels.

At the end of a meeting in Abuja, yesterday, the chairman of the political commission and other stakeholders agreed that such structures are needed to reposition LP from a mere platform for contesting elections to a viable political vehicle for the emancipation of Nigerian workers.

In a resolution signed by Ndubuaku and others, they explained that the new structures would be saddled with conducting an all-inclusive and expansive LP national convention.

They also passed a vote of no-confidence on the Anambra convention.
The resolution read in part: “INEC and all relevant security organisations in Nigeria are, hereby, notified and should be officially written immediately to recognise the Transition Committee as the interim leadership of the Labour Party, pending the conduct of an all-inclusive and expansive national convention.”

It noted that the Transition Committee, once constituted, should fully take over secretariats of the LP all over Nigeria. Also, the Transition Committee shall immediately set up an assets recovery process of all the properties of the LP. It shall ensure that all cases of fraud, impersonation and forgery of government documents pending against a few discredited former officers of are forensically audited, and culprits are diligently prosecuted as demanded by the leader of the party, Peter Obi.

It added: “Pursuant to the foregoing, the Transition Committee is mandated to begin the process of revalidation of current members of LP and the registration of new members through the issuance of new membership cards and receipt of membership dues for the conduct of an all-inclusive and expansive national convention.

“It is expected that this mobilisation drive will yield, in the first instance, a total membership strength of ten million LP card-carrying members drawn from across all workplaces, marketplaces, professional groups, ethnic and religious organisations that Nigerian workers and people belong to.”