By Kolawole Ojebisi
It appears the political developments are getting messier in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the intraparty squabble rocking the party continues to worsen by the day despite efforts to get it resolved.
This latest development follows a fresh announcement by a faction of the National Working Committee of the party, suspending the acting National Chairman, Ambassador Umar Damagum, and National Secretary, Senator Samuel Anyanwu, for alleged disloyalty to the party.
Earlier, a faction of the NWC aligned with Damagum had announced the suspension of the National Legal Adviser, Kamaldeen Ajibade, and the National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, for alleged disloyalty to the party.
But from all indications it’s a wave of claims and counter-claims rocking the party from both factions as Ologunagba, in a statement on Friday, also announced the suspension of Damagum and Anyanwu.
The statement read in part, “The National Working Committee (NWC) of the PDP has extensively considered the series of complaints raised against the Acting National Chairman, Amb. Illiya Damagum and National Secretary, Sen. Samuel Anyanwu particularly with regard to the letter addressed by them to the Court of Appeal in Appeal No:CA/PH/307/2024 against the party’s position in the case involving the 27 former members of the Rivers State House of Assembly who vacated their seats upon decamping from the PDP to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
“The NWC condemned this anti-party activity of the Acting National Chairman and the National Secretary which is in gross violation of the provisions of the PDP Constitution (as amended in 2017) and their Oath of Office.
“Consequently, the NWC, pursuant to Sections 57, 58 and 59 of the PDP Constitution, has suspended Amb. Illiya Damagum and Sen. Samuel Anyanwu as Acting National Chairman and National Secretary of the Party respectively and referred them to the National Disciplinary Committee for further action.
“In the meantime, the two officials are suspended from all meetings, activities and programs of the NWC pending the conclusion of an investigation by the National Disciplinary Committee.”
It would be recalled that the intraparty crisis rocking the PDP started in the buildup to the 2023 general elections when some prominent members of the party, particularly some governors, worked against the political aspirations of former Vice President Atiku’s presidential ambition.
These governors, dubbed the G-5, were led by former governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike.
Their grouse was that the party failed to zone its presidential ticket to the South on grounds what they called “fairness and equity.”
Their stance tore the party apart and it’s believed to have been one of the reasons the party lost the last presidential election.
Ever since then, things have not been cohesive for the party as it moves from one crisis to the other. Recently, a former governor of Osun State, Olagunsoye Oyinlola embarked on a tour of some states in a bid to get the issues besetting the party resolved but with this latest crisis, his efforts might have failed to yield the expected results.
