PDP Leaders Save Secondus, Convention Holds October

 

Uche Secondus will lead the Peoples Democratic Party for another three months as party Chairman.

 

The decision was taken by party stakeholders on Tuesday as they stopped a move to oust the embattled PDP chairman.

 

The stakeholders also stopped a move to ban Uche Secondus and other National Working Committee members from re-contesting at the party’s national convention.

 

The decision was reached after a series of meetings, which started on Monday night and ended at 4:21pm on Tuesday.

 

The party elders agreed to move the national convention, which was earlier scheduled to hold in December, back to October.

 

The stakeholders directed the party to set up a committee that would work out zoning of offices.

 

According to Punch, sources at the meetings said the shifting of the national convention to October was part of steps taken to pacify the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, and his supporters who were insisting on Secondus’ resignation.

 

Recall that a 35-member elders’ committee was on Thursday set up by the party’s Board of Trustees following calls by some members of the NWC for the chairman’s resignation on the grounds that he was plotting his re-election.

 

On Tuesday, fresh facts emerged about how the intervention of prominent elders of the PDP saved the party from disintegration.

 

It was gathered that party elders including former presidents of the Senate,  David Mark, Iyorchia Ayu and Pius Ayim, as well as ex-governors Ahmed Makarfi (Kaduna), Sule Lamido (Jigawa) and  Olagunsoye Oyinlola (Osun) held a series of meetings from late Monday night till early hours of Tuesday before arriving at a win-win situation for rival groups in the party.

 

A party source privy to the consultations, who spoke on condition of anonymity so as not to jeopardise peace moves, said, “It was very tricky because those for and against the national chairman held on to their positions until very late this morning.

 

Asked if specific mention of the chairman was made on the issue of seeking re-election, the source said, “The issue was not person specific, the point was the entire NWC. Don’t forget also that these positions can be re-zoned. If the position of chairman is zoned to another part of the South, say South -West, the issue of anyone seeking re-election will become a nullity.”

 

However, another party source said, “The October date may not be feasible. The reason is simple.  The party has so many activities lined up, the e-registration exercise started yesterday and there are a few states with outstanding congresses and we still have the Anambra governorship election to prepare for.

 

The expanded meeting of all the organs of the party which started at 2.46 pm ended at 4:21 pm.

 

The Chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum and Governor of Sokoto State, Aminu Tambuwal, who read the communiqué to journalists described the meeting as successful.

 

He said, “There were extensive consultations with all major stakeholders in the party including the governors,  members of the Board of Trustees, former presiding officers and current principal officers and leaders from the National Assembly, former governors,  former ministers,  and indeed other leaders of the party with a view to bringing all tendencies within the party together in view of the urgent task facing the party as the only viable vehicle to checkmate the abysmally poor governance of the APC- led Federal Government.