The crisis rocking the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has taken a new dimension as Governors in the party have asked the party\u2019s Acting National Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus, to leave office.
\nHe was asked to handover the running of the party\u2019s secretariat to the National Secretary, Prof. Wale Oladipo, and return to his position as the deputy national chairman.
\nEarlier, on Wednesday, January 27, 2016 a former aide to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, Ahmed Gulak, had stormed the party\u2019s national secretariat in Abuja with his supporters and pronounced himself as the national chairman.
\nThe former presidential aide had stated that he was acting on the court ruling which ordered the party to name someone from the North East as the new Chairman of the opposition party.<\/p>\n
Justifying his move, he maintained that he is the new PDP Chairman, because \u201cof a court order of December 16, asking the party to name someone from the North-East to replace the former Chairman of the party, Alhaji Adamu Mu\u2019azu\u201d.
\nHe was reportedly in the company of the former Special Assistant to ex-President Jonathan, on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, and a former Commissioner in Bayelsa State, Chief Ayakeme Whisky, while making the declaration.
\nThis development was welcomed by a cheering crowd which included workers at the secretariat as he urged the NWC of PDP to work with him in order to move the party forward.
\nMu\u2019azu, the former National Chairman of the party was supposedly forced to resign after the party\u2019s failure at the 2015 general election where the PDP lost to the All Progressives Congress, APC.
\nIn response, the PDP Governors Forum had earlier condemned Gulak for declaring himself as the party\u2019s new Chairman.
\nThe response of the PDP Governors Forum was contained in a Communiqu\u00e9 issued by its Director General, Earl Osaro, after a meeting.
\n\u201cThe invasion of the party\u2019s headquarters on Wednesday by Ahmed Gulak, who reportedly assumed the Chairmanship of the PDP, is regrettable and condemnable.
\n\u201cWe take cognisance of the judgment by the court in Abuja which ordered the acting Chairman to vacate office for any other person from the North-East zone of Nigeria.
\n\u201cOur party constitution has enough provisions for that and the necessary process has been put in motion.\u201d
\nRecall that the former Jonathan\u2019s aide had taken the PDP to court in November 2015 over its delay in appointing a Chairman after which an Abuja High Court ordered the acting Chairman, Secondus, to vacate the office within 14 days\u200e.<\/p>\n
However, the National Working Committee, NWC, of the party is battle drawn over the directive that the Secondus should handover the reins of power to the National Secretary, Prof. Oladipo.
\nIn a statement signed by PDP\u2019s National Legal Adviser, Victor Kwom, on Thursday January 29, 2016, dared the PDP governors by insisting that Secondus remained the acting chairman.
\n\u201cFor the avoidance of doubt, the statutory organs of the party, the NWC, National Caucus, BoT and NEC will be meeting next week to deliberate on developments, including the replacement, from the Northeast of Alhaji Adamu Muazu, who resigned as the national chairman of the party.\u201d
\nThe statement added that the replacement would be in strict adherence to the party\u2019s constitution, as specified in Section 47(6).
\n\u201cUntil then, the status quo remains, which means the Deputy National Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus, remains as the acting national chairman.
\n\u201cFurthermore, it must be reiterated that relevant stakeholders of our party, including the PDP Governor\u2019s Forum, National Caucus and the Board of Trustees (BoT) as well as our leadership structures at all levels are united behind the National Working Committee in the efforts to rebuild, reposition and strengthen our party for the challenges ahead\u201d.
\nThe statement further stated the resolve of the leadership to remain focused and not be distracted by the \u201cunpatriotic actions\u201d of Gulak.
\nPost-Nigerian learnt from a reliable source that the battle of who takes over the chairmanship of the party is geared towards sectional interest for the 2019 presidential ticket.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The crisis rocking the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has taken a new dimension as Governors in the party have asked the party\u2019s Acting National Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus, to leave…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46031,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n