The crisis rocking the People Democratic Party (PDP) has worsened, following the resignation of seven members of the National Working Committee (NWC).
It was gathered that more officers are still threatening to resign their positions over what they described as marginalisation and ill-treatment by the national chairman, Prince Uche Secondus.
But, rising from an emergency meeting at the party secretariat in Abuja, the Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, called for calm, urging aggrieved party members to explore the existing mechanism for conflict resolution.
There has been a running battle among the blocs in the party for the control of the party machinery, ahead of 2023 elections.
Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike, it was learnt, has been canvassing the resignation of the national chairman as the party prepares for its National Convention in December.
The National Youth leader, Ude Okoye, warned that more members will still defect, if the party fails to put its house in order.
However, sources said the PDP Governors’ Forum is rooting for Secondus’ continuity in office as a strategy to scheme out the Rivers governor from 2023 calculations.
Wike and Secondus hail from Rivers State.
Former President Goodluck Jonathan and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar had been on reconciliation mission to Rivers State as part of efforts to restore peace to the troubled party.
The party officers, who were deputies to their senior officers, accused Secondus of sidelining them in the running of the party.
Those that resigned are the Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Diran Odeyemi; Deputy National Legal Adviser, Ahmed Bello; Deputy National Women Leader, Hadizat Umoru; and Deputy National Auditor, Divine Amina Arong.
Others are Deputy National Organising Secretary, Hassan Yakubu and Deputy National Financial Secretary, Irona Alphonsus.
The chairman of the ‘PDP Deputy National Officers Forum’, Diran Odeyemi, said the reasons for their resignation were valid.
The PDP constitution does not give much recognition to many deputy national officers, although they are elected members of the NWC.
Only the Deputy National Chairman and the Deputy National Secretary are assigned roles by the constitution, while other deputies are completely shut out.
The deputies have always played the second fiddle in successive NWCs and many of them had been forced to resign in the past as a result of redundancy.
Shedding light on the crisis, Okoye alleged that the chairman has not been running the party in a way that will make it bounce back to power in the next general elections.
He spoke on the Channels Television Programme: ‘Politics Today’, monitored in Lagos.
Okoye alleged that Secondus was running the party for personal gain, adding that his style made some governors and members of the National Assembly to defect to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Chiding Secondus for what he described as “mismanagement of the party”, he said the chairman is not a good manager of crisis.
Okoye, who called for the resignation of the chairman, said the party secretariat had been crippled.
He said Secondus has not initiated reforms required to reposition the party.
Okoye, who also spoke with reporters in Abuja, after the emergency meeting, threatened to resign from the NWC.
He said: “Today, I have asked him (Secondus) in our NWC meeting to resign his position as the chairman of this party because he cannot lead this party to victory.
“I am also asking the leaders, the governors, the founding fathers, the youth, the women to rise up to rescue our party from the hand of incompetent leader like Secondus because he is not willing to take us to anywhere.
“The governors, if they don’t wade in this matter right now, I assure Nigerians that within the next three, four days, my (resignation) letter will be made public.
“Seven deputies resigned their position today because of Secondus. Many more people are also going to resign in the NWC because of Secondus.
“Right now, I can tell you that no fewer than eight to 10 persons within the NWC members are very aggrieved.
Okoye said Secondus should be removed from office, if he fails to resign.
The media office of the National Chairman described as unfortunate the statement by Okoye.
The statement, signed by Special Adviser on Media to the National chairman, Ike Abonyi, said: “The media office wonders why it took the National Youth leader three and half years before realising that the national chairman is incompetent or that he is enriching himself.
“The agenda of Hon. Ude Okoye and his sponsors are to take this party back to Egypt but they have failed because the party is focused and unwilling to look back as they match towards regaining power.
“The party structure is intact and anybody who allows him or herself to fall to the inducement for an interim administration in the party will be disappointed because the stakeholders are not ready to go backwards any longer.
“ The media office advised media houses to look out for anti democratic operatives who think they can use money to destroy this party and play into the hand of the inept ruling party, the APC.”
Ologbondiyan urged aggrieved members to ventilate their grievances through the existing mechanism for crisis resolution.
He said: “The National Working Committee of our great party at its meeting today, received the notice of the resignation from deputies, who are elected members of the National Executive Committee.
“The meeting of the National Working Committee and the deputies immediately took place to dialogue on the issues that were raised. The party will look into the grievances raised by members of NEC as well as members of the National Working Committee.
“The internal conflict resolution mechanism of our party has also been immediately activated to put these issues behind us. We call on all the leaders, stakeholders and members of our great party to remain calm as we collectively resolve these issues.”
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