Tenure expiration: NWC to set up caretaker c'ttee for Abia PDP - Party spokesman

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Tenure expiration: NWC to set up caretaker c’ttee for Abia PDP – Party spokesman

By Steve Oko

Following the expiration of the four -year tenure of Dr Asiforo Okere-led State Working Committee, SWC, of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Abia State chapter, the national leadership of the party has said a Caretaker Committee would be set up to pilot the affairs of the party pending the conduct of a fresh congress.

PDP National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, made the clarification Thursday in an exclusive interview with Wawa News Global .

He said that the national leadership of the party would do the needful, adding that Abia is not the only affected state chapter.

“As a party we have a process. The party will take appropriate action and do what is necessary. The SWC of Ondo State expired on the 3rd, and we reconstituted it today (Thursday).

” The national leadership will reconstitute a body that will manage the party for as long as the NWC decides”, Ologunagba said.

Corroborating this position, the Deputy National Legal Adviser of the party, Chief Okechukwu Osuoha, said that the NWC would soon take a decision on setting up an interim committee to run the affairs of the party until there is a fresh congress.

He said:” There can never be a vacuum. The NWC is deliberating over it to know what to do. The truth is that there must be congress but in the absence of congress the NWC will set up an interim committee to run the party until there is fresh congress”.

The Okere-led SWC which was inaugurated on August 8, 2020, expired on Wednesday August 8 but before its expiration, some aggrieved party faithful had obtained court injunction against tenure extension.

Recall that PDP had penultimate week, in a letter to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, announced the postponement of its congresses in Abia and Ebonyi States, which were earlier scheduled for Saturday, July 27.

The postponement, according to the letter, jointly signed by the acting national Chairman of the party, Ambassador Umar Damagum, and National Secretary, Senator Samuel Anyanwu, was due to operational challenges.

“What this means invariably is that ward, LGA and state congresses will not hold in these states as earlier scheduled”, the letter read.

The aggrieved party members including Chief Francis Etuzu, PDP Chairman, Ahikwu Olokoro, Ward 1, Umuahia South Local Government Area; Chidindu Kalu Kalu; and Enyinnaya Ogbu, had also restrained PDP from conducting its July 27 congresses in Abia.

Justice C.U. Okoroafor of the Bende Judicial Division of the Abia State High Court who granted the order on July 23, 2024, also barred PDP from holding the congresses in any other date or location pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice already filled.

One of the Claimants, Chief Etuzu, had accused the party leadership in his council of sidelining him, and handing the party’s register and membership cards for the ward to another person.

Etuzu, a kinsman of the National Chairman of the PDP, late Chief Vincent Ogbulafor, had said impunity and imposition by some leaders of the party compelled him and his co-claimants to approach the court.

“I’m the Ward 1 Chairman, but I don’t know what is going on in the party. The enemies of Chief Vin Ogbulafor are trying to victimise me without considering the interests of the party.

He alleged that the said leaders who were also responsible for PDP’s abysmal performance in the 2023 polls in Abia, were trying to hijack the party’s structure and impose their puppets.

He vowed to resist impunity and injustice, regretting that efforts to get the attention of the party leadership to address the matter failed, hence his decision to seek redress in court.

Etuzu urged the national leadership of PDP to set up a Caretaker Committee to oversee the affairs of the party in the state pending the conduct of fresh congresses.

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Steve Oko, Publisher/C.E.O, WaWa News Global. For more information on advert placement and news coverage, contact us on: 08038725600, or via email stevemanofgod2000@yahoo.com; wawanewsglobal@gmail.com Always read WaWa News Global - Your most dependable online news platform for the latest breaking news in Nigeria.