Cross River PDP sues Secondus, others as ward suspends state chairman

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Cross River has sued the National Chairman, Uche Secondus, and three others to court for alleged corruption.
But the newly inaugurated executive committee members of Ward 3 Calabar Municipality have suspended the state chairman of the party, Edim Edim, for misconduct. He had reportedly accused the Secondus and other members of the National Working Committee (NWC) of receiving N150 million bribe to release the Exco list which he (Edim) tagged fake.

Using Otu Marshall, Terence Orok and three orders as applicants, Cross River PDP, in a motion ex parte suit No. HC/15/2020 dated April 29, 2020 at High Court, Calabar, secured an order of interim injunction restraining the fourth respondent (Edim) from inaugurating persons other than the claimants, as elected officers of the party at the ward and council levels, pending the determination of the motion on notice.

The state’s Acting Chief Judge, Justice Maurice Eneji, presided over the hearing. After hearing the counsel to the applicants, the court, adopted his written address, and made an order restraining the defendants from recognising the persons listed in the letter with Ref No. PDP/DOM/GP/VOL.2/20-387B of March 26, 2020 or any other person howsoever called at the ward or council level in Cross River except the claimants.

Accordingly, the court ordered the defendants “to maintain the status quo and refrain from taking any step in respect of the first defendant, pending the determination of the motion on notice “to enable the claimants serve their other processes on the first to third defendants who are residing outside the jurisdiction of this court.”

But, the new Ward 3 exco led by Peter Ika in its inaugural meeting on Saturday suspended the state chairman from office.However, top party sources have declared the allegation by Edim as wild, spurious and unfounded.

It added, “The party did the right thing and we stand by it. No money was given or collected from anybody to clear our members for the ward and chapter inaugurations in Cross River.”

Meanwhile, former Chairman of Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC), Mr. Goddie Akpama, has said that former Senate Leader, Victor Ndoma-Egba, is still in active politics.This is contrary to social media reports that Ndoma-Egba had been retired from politics.

Akpama stated yesterday: “The publication is the work of a sponsored hack writer that failed to achieve their dubious intention of damaging the hard-earned political achievements of Ndoma-Egba, because it is a tale of ill-rehearsed lies.”

He said Ndoma-Egba never contested the 2015 general election and that after the primaries of the PDP, he left the party and “has never looked back. He joined the All Progressives Congress (APC) after the transition programme of 2015.”