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By Myke Agunwa
National Secretary of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Sen. Samuel Anyanwu has said that the crisis ravaging the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is self-inflicted and can be resolved through the constitution of the party.
He further disclosed that the plot to remove him as the party’s National Secretary was hatched by the party’s National Vice Chairman, Southeast, Ali Odefa whose tenure was about to expire and he quickly misled the governor of Enugu State, Peter Mbah to compel him (Anyanwu) to resign so that Ude-Okoye from Enugu state will come in as replacement while Odefa will return for another tenure.
In an interview with journalists on Wednesday in Abuja, the PDP scribe said that he cannot be intimidated into resinging.
“The then National Vice Chairman of the party Southeast, Ali Odefa, his tenure was elapsing and he wanted to remain as member of National Working Committee. He went, conjured and manipulated the governor of Enugu State, making him to believe that he can have the National Secretary of the party. I’m sure that the governor himself is not aware that the offices are shared among the states. They jumped into it, because he knows that the next National Vice Chairman of Southeast is supposed to come from Enugu State and he knows that he will not get it back. So he wanted to return back because his tenure ended on March 3rd or so. That’s how this whole issue started. He now connived with his friend, who is Governor Makinde of Oyo state, to pressurize Enugu to bring Ude-Okoye in and they went to court.
“During the flag off of my campaign, Enugu governor came and asked me to resign and I told him, I will not and he was so angry. How can I resign on the day of my flag off? He became angry and said that I am going to resign. So it’s about ego. So I should trade my position because of somebody’s ego”.
He went further to point out that Odefa has ceased from being a member of the party, stressing that any party activities he attends becomes a nullity.
“He was expelled by his ward, affirmed by his local government and then of course the state. They went to court and got an impeccable judgement. And this is part of the judgement. “An order of perpetual injunction restraining the first defendant, Honorable Dr. Ali Odefa from parading himself as a member of the People’s Democratic Party and or as the National Vice-Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party for the South East Zone of Nigeria and from performing the roles or exercising the powers of the position”.
“It goes further to say, ‘This court ruling not only fortified the decisions of the party structures at his ward, Local government and state levels but also permanently bans him from presiding at or even attending any PDP related meetings. It is thus established that any meeting conveyed or attended by Honorable Ali Odefa remains invalid and infected by the virus of fundamental illegality’. This is the judgment of the High Court.
“So you will not go to the South East and say you are convening a meeting, who was there? I am the National Secretary of the party; I am from the South East. What meeting will you convene when I am not there? What justification do you have? Assuming today I am no longer the National Secretary, I am a member of the caucus, I am a member of the Board of Trustees, I am a member of NEC by my position”.
Anyanwu further accused some elders and stakeholders in the party of demarketing PDP through their utterances.
“All these PDP leaders who go on national television, they are the ones demarketing the party. Instead of saying issues that can build the party, you are saying things that will destroy and demarket the party and accuse the Minister of FCT, because he’s my friend”.
He affirmed that he has a good relationship with the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike. He also said that Wike informed all the necessary organs of the party before taking up the appointment from President Bola Tinubu.
“His Excellency, the FCT Minister is my friend and my boss and I can never for any intimidation, deny him. Nobody can make me to deny my friend because after position, there’s still life. Even you as journalists, I don’t know where I’m going to meet you tomorrow. Your job may not be as a journalist. So I cannot underwrite any of you because this journey is still very far and nobody knows how it will end.
“Some people will say Senator Anayanwu, he is pro-Wike. What is pro-Wike. Everybody knows his role in this party. Everybody knows when it mattered most, he was there for the party. He is working with the APC government and they forget the way he was appointed. He wrote a letter to his party in the state. The party in the state gave him a go ahead. He wrote a letter to the then governor, the governor of the state also gave a go ahead. He wrote to NWC and he was appointed. I would not stop him from going to hold that position”.
He said that the only way the problem could be resolved is for the party to allow him serve out his tenure which will come to an end in December after a convention slated to hold in August.
“I campaigned, I went to all the states campaigning for this position and I was elected and my position is for four years which the constitutional guarantees and the next convention is by August or October and we have just five more months to go.
“Why would you want to put a party into turmoil? Why would you sacrifice me for a man who has been rejected by his people and by court? What kind of sacrifice is that? And you think I will stand and I will sit and watch? It’s not about making sacrifice. It’s about doing the right thing. It’s only when you do the right thing that somebody can make a sacrifice.
“And what would I do between now and the convention to injure the party? And why would I be irresponsible to injure a party that gave me a platform?
“Some of these people have left the party and come back. Some of them came to this party midway. But I have been with this party since 1999.
“I’ve never gone out and come back. I’ve remained. In my state, we’ve had a government. For eight years, Rochas was governor I was in PDP. I defeated his candidates from state assembly straight to senate. That’s how my popularity is. So for me, I don’t see the reason why we should injure this party” he said.