Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Governors once more waded into the ongoing crisis in Rivers State on Friday, restating their support for embattled Governor Sim Fubara.
This was disclosed in a communique at the end of PDP Governors’ meeting held in Jalingo, Taraba State, which was signed by the Chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum, Governor Bala Mohammed.
Also, it emerged on Friday, that the recently constituted disciplinary committee of the PDP may suffer a setback as a former Deputy National Chairman and member of the Board of Trustees (BoT) of the party, Chief Bode George, said he would not serve in the committee under the chaired by Chief Tom Ikimi.
This comes as the Acting National Chairman of the PDP, Amb. Illya Damagum, has been asked to return to his office as the Deputy National Chairman, for which he was elected, for Justice to reign in the party.
Likewise, two former governors of the PDP in Benue State, Gabriel Suswam and Samuel Ortom have said there are issues dividing the party in the state.
Governors elected on the platform of the PDP met on Friday to weigh into the leadership crisis affecting the party.
The communique from the PDP Governors stated: “The Forum notes the political impasse in Rivers State where court judgements are employed to determine the outcome of the party congresses.
“The PDP Governors’ Forum restates its stand with the Governor of Rivers State and will engage the National Working Committee (NWC) of our great party to revisit the congress to correct the anomaly and allow His Excellency Governor Siminalayi Fubara to take his rightful leadership position of the party in the state.”
The PDP Governors slammed the federal government on the abuse of revenue by the President Tinubu-led federal government.
According to the communique, “The Forum notes with concern, the refusal of the federal government to distinguish between the Federal Government of Nigeria revenue and revenue accruing to the Federation which must be allocated in accordance with extant laws.
“We call on the Federal Ministry of Finance and the Accountant General of the Federation to be more transparent in obeying the law, particularly section 162 (1) (2) (3). And equally, call on the Accountant General of the Federation to stop behaving like the Accountant General of the federal government and to exercise her role in line with the constitution.
“Therefore, we call for the separation of the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation and that of the Accountant General of the FGN.”, the PDP governors stressed.
On the #EndBadGovernance protests which held across the country recently, the PDP governors said they, “noted with a sigh of relief the end of the #EndBadGovernance protests which was edging to a major national crisis.
“We salute the dexterity of the Governors especially of the PDP extraction in handling the situation in their respective States with maturity, thereby restraining hoodlums and other unscrupulous elements from hijacking the protests.
“The Forum reiterates that peaceful protests are the inalienable rights of the citizens through which they vent their genuine grievances. The Forum commiserates with the families of those innocent souls that were lost and calls on the Federal Government to ensure fair and speedy trial of those who were arrested.”
Commenting on the economy, “The Forum laments that rather than undertake a review of macro-economic and social policies with a view to giving them a human face, the Federal Government has resorted to blackmail.
“We call on Mr. President to show statesmanship by restraining his officials from blame games, that make the sub-nationals look bad by mentioning piecemeal interventions that cannot solve the problem. We remain unshaken in our firm resolve to stand with the suffering Nigerian masses and to take all legitimate steps to ameliorate their plight.”
On the forthcoming governorship election in Edo State, the communique said, “With regard to the forthcoming governorship election in Edo State, we condemn the pronouncements by the President to compromise the election in favour of his party as well as the systematic intimidation of PDP supporters by the Nigeria Police and call on the Inspector General of Police to call his men to order.”
The Forum commended the host, the Taraba State Government, Governor Agbu Kefas, for the hospitality accorded members of the Forum and the Secretariat and noted with delight the giant steps taken to deliver the dividends of democracy to the people of the state; which is in line with the governance philosophy of the PDP.
However, speaking on Arise News Channel yesterday, on the disciplinary committee, Bode George said, ”I will not serve under Chief Tom Ikimi. What level or depth of information does he have? When did he join the PDP? I have been in the PDP before him. I have been in the PDP since the beginning.”
He explained that the two committees set up by the PDP may not achieve any objective because the issues of zoning and rotation systems are unresolved.
He explained that the problem with the PDP in 2022 began when the former national chairman of the party, Iyorchia Ayu, refused to step aside as the national chairman when Atiku emerged as the presidential candidate.
According to George, “It is ridiculous to have a national chairman of the PDP and the presidential candidate come from the same zone, while other zones have nothing. In the first place, when Atiku emerged as the presidential candidate, Ayu ought to have resigned to give the south a sense of belonging.
“This is a fixated aspect of zoning and rotation of offices that is enshrined in the PDP constitution.”
He further faulted the constitution of the disciplinary committee, stressing that the chairman and secretary of the committee are members of a faction to the crisis rocking the party.
George explained that the PDP would continue to grope in the dark until the right thing was done, explaining that the 2022 presidential convention was manipulated to favour Atiku
He explained that he initiated a meeting between members of the BoT and the Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara and that since they had heard the governor’s side of the story, that plans were underway to meet with the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike and hear his own side of the story before there could be reconciliation between the former governor and his erstwhile godson.
On why he should not be accused of anti-party activities, he said the PDP governorship candidate in Lagos State did not agree to run as running mate to Vivor Rhodes.
Meanwhile, in an interview with newsmen, the former national publicity secretary of the PDP, Kola Ologbondiyan called on the acting national chairman Damagum to give peace a chance to reign in the party by returning to the official position that he was elected.
Ologbondiyan said his continued staying in office as the acting national chairman was depriving the North Central of the legitimate office allocated to it in the last national convention of the PDP that was held in 2021.
He said the offices of the national chairman and national legal adviser were allocated to the north central to which former national chairman, Iyorchia Ayu and the incumbent national legal adviser, Karamudeen Ajibade were elected.
The former spokesman of the PDP faulted the position of the Minister of the Minister of the federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike that it is only the national convention can remove Ambassador Damagum.
He referred Wike to sections 47 (6) that said that once an executive officer is removed from office that it was his zone that should replace him, arguing that the continued stay in office of Damagum is an affront on the face of justice and fair place
He referred Wike to the replacement of the national woman leader and vice national chairman in the southwest who were replaced by their various zones.
The former national leader and vice national chairman for the southwest died in office and they were replaced by their respective zones
According to Ologbondiyan, “the national executive committee (NEC) directed that a new national chairman shall be elected after the congresses and all things being equal, the congresses having been concluded that a NEC meeting shall elect a new substantive national chairman in September.
“Then Damagum shall return to his substantive office of deputy national chairman for which he was elected. This is justice to the north central zone of the party”
In a related development, Ortom and Suswam, have admitted that there are contentious issues confronting the peace and unity of the party in the State.
The two leaders further said that there was need to address the root cause of the problem that had bedeviled the party and had caused disaffection amongst members.
Both leaders spoke during the expanded stakeholders meeting of the party that was convened by the State Caretaker Committee of the party held at the party secretariat in Makurdi.
Despite that discussions at the meeting were expected to revolve around the forthcoming chairmanship and councillorship elections in the state, issues of the internal crisis dominated discussions.
At the end of the day, all parties including Chief Ortom, Senator Suswam and Senator Abba Moro, representing Benue South senatorial district and the speakers from the three senatorial zones resolved to close ranks and move forward
Declaring the meeting open, Chairman of the Caretaker Committee, AVM Napoleon Bali, said the meeting was to brief members of the party ahead of the forthcoming Local Government (LG), elections in the state
Although, he confirmed that there were issues on ground, he was confident that such issues would be resolved in the collective interest of the party.
He encouraged party members to pick forms and contest the election, expressing the hope that the PDP would make an impact in the election.
Bali, who advised members of the party to play by the rules, pledged that the committee would ensure that the right thing is done at all times.
Senator Suswam in his own part said “If we pretend here that there are no issues and go into the local government elections, the same issues that are on ground will resurface.
” So it is absolutely important for us to address these issues; they are very fundamental, they are grassroot issues. And if we don’t address them, as we go back to do these primaries and try to select our candidates for the party, those issues will come up.
“We have self inflicted pains on our party and we are very divided as we are seated here, which has never happened before.
“When we, leaders of the party sat together and decided that the immediate past Governor (Ortom) should be the leader of the party, there were no dissenting voices. But certain things have cropped in and we are unable to seat together. So we have to sit together and address these fundamental issues, otherwise even these congresses we are going to will have some issues.
“So I want to appeal to you that while we address the issues of local government elections we should quickly fix a meeting for us to address the fundamental issues that are tearing our party apart.”
In his remarks, the leader of the party in the state, Chief Samuel Ortom insisted that, “We (PDP) are a strong force; till tomorrowPDP remains a big party that can win elections at anytime.
“And by the grace of God we have seen the power of uniting together to win elections, but when we are divided we lose and that shows a big lesson that we must not fight to fulfill our personal interest or boost our ego but we should fight for the interest of the party. That is what will make things work for us.
“And where things are wrong, we should be bold enough to confront them (leaders) because the end result will be where we have found ourselves today; being complacent and sitting on the fence will not help us.
“I also agree as leader of the party that things are not well with us and there is need for us to sit together; if we sit together we will be able to iron out our differences; those areas that are conflicting with our interest and then we can come out with solutions that will project and promote the People’s Democratic Party.
“We are on ground and if we are united, I can assure you that we are going to win elections anytime and any day.
“You (Caretaker Committee) have additional work to do; as our leaders we must work closely because we know how elections at the local levels are done and here I think we can win with a little bit of careful strategy.”
“In our party, we have always had conflicts but we have always found ways resolving it and that is why in the Constitution of our party it is embedded the conflict resolution mechanism; internally we sort out our problems.
“We can still do it; we can do that at individual levels, discuss with ourselves. Where we cannot, there are others we can call to help us resolve it. That is life; that is politics; you cannot run away from conflicts
Senator Abba Moro, representing Benue South senatorial district who appealed to leaders of the party not to meddle in the selection process, insisted that the emergence of the right candidate was key to the PDP winning the local government polls in the state.
Speaker after speaker, from each of the senatorial zones, stressed the need for the PDP to have a united house that is capable of winning election in the state.
While they pledged that they would continually support the party to succeed, the speakers, also pledged to extend the same support to the Caretaker Committee to ensure a smooth transition.
Chuks Okocha and Blessing Ibunge
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