PDP crisis worsens; ex-governors, ex-ministers threaten parallel convention

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, was, yesterday, heading towards its worst crisis in 18 years after some of its major founding fathers pulled away from plans by the Senator Ali Modu Sheriff-led leadership to hold a convention in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Saturday. The dissenters, led by the pioneer national secretary, Prof. Jerry Gana, yesterday, inaugurated a 50-man committee to hold a parallel national convention of the party in Abuja where they said they hoped to give a new face to the party they claimed had been taken over by hoodlums and strangers. The resolve of the Gana group was despite last minute fence-mending efforts at the National Executive Committee, NEC, meeting of the party hosted by Sheriff at the party’s secretariat. Ali Modu Sheriff and Jerry Gana Senator Ike Ekweremadu, Deputy President of the Senate, however, assured those at the NEC meeting that the party was resilient enough to pull through its present challenges. But the chairman of PDP Governors Forum and Governor of Ondo State, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, cautioned that “a new party would emerge from the ashes of PDP and the All Progressives Congress, APC, if the two parties fail to resolve their internal problems.” The Gana-led PDP Concerned Stakeholders also appointed state coordinators to mobilize members of the party to attend its convention in Abuja scheduled for the same day as the convention in Port-Harcourt. The names of the coordinators were not immediately made known, but it is believed that they would be picked from the 53-member committee it had earlier announced. Some of the prominent members in attendance at the meeting of the Gana group, which was not open to the media, were Senator Ibrahim Mantu, Tanimu Turaki, Esther Audu, Doyin Okupe, Achike Udenwa and Abubakar Sulaiman. On P-Harcourt convention In spite of the developments, the embattled National Chairman, Sheriff, said the party would go to Port-Harcourt as a united family. He added that the NEC resolved to go ahead with the convention in Port-Harcourt where he said the zoning of the 2019 presidency to the North would be ratified. He said the chairmanship will revert to the South once the presidential candidate of the party emerged in 2018. He said the committee also resolved that state congresses in  Zamfara, Sokoto, Lagos, Yobe and Anambra would be revisited until all the leaders in the affected states came to an agreement. Sheriff said: “The NEC also observed that members of the PDP were being arrested by anti-graft agencies. Over 20 of our members are under lock by anti-graft agencies because of the funds the party used for its campaign. “We believe that PDP is not the only party that went for election, we are urging that the APC and other political parties should also be investigated. We are not against anybody being investigated, but it should be a uniform rule for all parties in Nigeria.” Governor Mimiko, in his remarks, acknowledged that much was still required to build peace, saying: “We are at crossroads of some sort; issues beckon on us to put all our disagreements behind us and to fashion out our unique perspectives that will differentiate us from the ruling party.” Noting that propaganda was no longer a sellable commodity, the governor urged party leaders to resolve their differences, otherwise a new party would emerge from the ashes of the PDP and the ruling APC. In his remarks, Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, said though the PDP had its challenges, “the good news is that we have the resilience, we have the experience, and we have the desired determination to always resolve our differences. That is what is going for us. We must continue to live by example.” Total stranger has taken over PDP — Babatope Throwing his weight behind the Abuja convention, former Minister of Transportation, Chief Ebenezer Babatope, said: “A total stranger has taken over our party, and he is the chairman today.  It was him and his friends who also went to court to stop the convention.” Also speaking, Dr. Doyin Okupe said: “I am a leader in that group, and I am part of that leadership. The Port Harcourt convention is derived by the proclamation of the National Executive Council of the party extending the life of the Sheriff-led committee. You cannot give what you do not have; NEC does not have authority to do that. Therefore, everything that is being done up to the PortHarcourt convention is illegal; it cannot stand.”
Vanguard