The lingering crises ravaging the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) take on a new dimension as 60 out of the 113 members of the House of Representatives threatened to quit the party over the ongoing plans by the acting PDP National Chairman, Umar Damagun, to hand over the party structures to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The aggrieved federal lawmakers, who spoke during a press briefing held in Abuja, also called for the immediate resignation of the embattled PDP acting National Chairman over an alleged plan to use the Federal High Court to legalise the illegal extension of the tenure of Chairmen of Local Government Areas (LGAs) in River State.
Spokesman of the PDP federal lawmakers, Hon. Ikenga Ugochinyere, who issued the threat notice during a press briefing held in Abuja, accused a Damagun-led group of “doctoring” Caretaker Committee members in Rivers State and at least 10 other states.
“This story is quite unfortunate, and I can confirm to you all that it is not a rumour but a fact. We have obtained very credible intelligence on the ongoings in our party’s Wadata House National Secretariat, and it does not sound right at all. We currently have in the PDP a national leadership that is in bed with the APC and is working extremely hard to hand over the party to the APC.
“Following the removal of Sen. Iyorchia Ayu as national chairman of our party and the assumption of office by Umar Illiya Damagun, who was elected as Deputy National Chairman to act in his stead, the party has only known misfortune and abdicated its responsibility as the leading opposition party in the country. That role that Nigerians would have loved the PDP to play as an institution it truly is has been abdicated for a plate of porridge.”
The lawmakers who expressed frustration over Damagun’s sit-tight posture rather than midwife the process through which the North Central Zone will take over the reign of the party lamented that: “Not only did Damagun hold tight to the seat for well over a year now, he has abdicated every responsibility of the office of the Chairman of the PDP and is very comfortable serving APC interests.”
“It is on this basis that we, the genuine PDP lawmakers who believe in our party and its ideals, hereby announce today that we will not stand idly by and allow Damagum to destroy the efforts of Sir Alex Ekwueme, Prince Solomon Lar, and other eminent former chairmen and leaders of the party.
We, therefore, declare that if the list in the Rivers State PDP Caretaker Committee and the other 10 states were to stand, the 60 lawmakers would resign from the party, sever all relationships with the party, and seek new political alliances elsewhere. Some leaders may not boldly speak out, but as you all know, we won our elections by scoring victory against the devil himself. So we can speak out.
“Let us sound this note of warning to all in the PDP who are part of the leadership of the party at whatever level that this PDP local government leadership will mark the end of the party if Damagum tampers with the original agreed list of Caretaker Committee members for Rivers State and the other 10 states.
“Gentlemen, what Mr Damagun is doing to the PDP is worse than whatever Ali Modu Sherriff did or intended to do. Presently, in all the states where the PDP is not the governor, Damagum has already concluded arrangements to hand the party’s leadership to the APC. Not being satisfied, he now wants to hand over strategic states, including Rivers State as well.
“In the specific case of Rivers State, the caretaker committee members from Damagun’s office are LG Chairmen produced by the former Rivers House of Assembly members who, as we all know, have lost their seats following their defection to the APC. They have formally left the PDP, and Damagun is taking a list from them to announce.
“Gentlemen, please try and imagine what could have led to the National Chairman of a party discussing issues of party leadership with people who are not members of that party. Imagine how the discussion of how to collect a list from non-party members was conducted, and imagine the terms and conditions of that entire episode.
“Now begin to wonder why, despite all the political crisis in Rivers State, our Ag. National Chairman has maintained absolute silence. He did not intervene; he did not lead his executive to storm Rivers at a time when our party’s government came under unconstitutional assault.
“He (Damagun) stood by and watched until President Bola Tinubu, from another political party, intervened. Gentlemen, it is the PDP we are talking about—the largest political party in Africa, a solid institution different from all the one-man political parties in Nigeria.”
While affirming that at least 60 PDP lawmakers in the National Assembly have unanimously resolved to “severe all relations with the Damagun leadership until he leaves office,” Hon. Ugochinyere stressed that “it is our call on Umar Iliya Damagum to immediately resign so that the Party can midwife a process and hand over to someone from the North Central in line with the provisions of our great party.
“It is also our call to the leaders of our Party from the North Central, HE Governor Caleb Mutfwang of Plateau, HE Senator David Mark, HE Senator Bukola Saraki, Senator Abba Moro, HE Senator Gabriel Suswam, and HE Babangida Aliyu, to rise up now and save the soul of the Party. The enemies have gotten to the last bridge, and we must defend it and push them back.”
While reacting to the ploy to legalise the tenure of the Chairmen of Local Government Areas in Rivers State, he urged the Judiciary
“In a related development, we have now received credible intelligence of a plot to use the Federal High Court to secure a secret exparte that will attempt to legalise the illegal extension of the about-to-expire tenure of LGA Chairmen in Rivers State, which was carried out by the former members of the State Assembly who lost legitimacy as lawmakers the very moment they decamped to APC, knowing full well that there was no crisis in PDP, hence their seats as lawmakers became vacant immediately the remaining legitimate members declared the seats vacant.
“We are raising this alarm in view of the legitimacy of the desperate move, which, if not halted, can lead to anarchy and collapse of constitutional governance. We want to call on the Chief Judge of Federal High Court, Justice Omotosho and other eminent judges to be aware of these plots and that those behind it are already celebrating that the exparte order is in their pocket, awaiting release to the media even when the case has not been heard.
“To our respected Chief Judge, we are compelled to publicly bring this shocking development to your attention in the interest of justice and preservation of the image of our nation’s judiciary.”
To this end, the federal lawmakers who warned that the Rivers State crisis “could lead to anarchy; this is a grand assault on democracy and rule of law, and if our judiciary is ever dragged into this, our nation would have been taken back to the dark ages, hence our call on the National Judicial Commission, the Federal High Court, the Nigeria Bar Association, and all relevant authorities to ensure that our courts are not used to carry out the infamous alleged act of using an exparte order to legalise the illegal tenure extension for local government chairmen in Rivers State whose tenures are about to expire.
“We are also calling on the Federal Government to be on alert, including the Judiciary, as we have been informed about another prayer in the suit seeking to order the Accountant General of the Federation and the Federal Ministry of Finance to seize the legitimate local government allocation of Rivers and deny the Rivers people access to their constitutional funds, including LGA workers and primary school teachers who will not be paid while the money should be sent to the LGA Chairmen whose tenure will lapse in days who, in their retirement, will be sharing the allocation of the people based on the illegal law that claimed to have extended their tenure without any election producing them.
“Haba…Even in Mobutu Sese Seko’s Congo or Nkurunziza’s Burundi, people could never have imagined these kinds of recklessness.”]
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