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- 60 Lawmakers Threaten To Dump Party
By Abiola Olawale
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) may be headed for a fresh crisis as 60 federal Lawmakers elected on the platform of the party have threatened to dump the party ahead of the 2027 general elections.
The lawmakers who made the call on the leadership of the party said they are expressing their grievances over the action and inaction of the acting National Chairman of the party, Alhaji Umar Damagum.
The lawmakers alleged that Damagum is working together with the All Progressives Congress (APC) to ground the activities of the party ahead of the forthcoming 2027 general elections.
Addressing a world press conference in Abuja, the lawmakers demanded the immediate removal of Damagum from office, warning that if that is not done they will withdraw from the PDP.
Alleging imposition, the spokesperson of the coalition Hon. Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere flanked by Hon. Aliyu Mustapha (Kaduna), Hon. Awaji-Inombek Abiante (Rivers), Hon. Midala Balami (Borno), and numerous others rejected particularly the alleged move by the acting National Chairman, Damagum to foist his loyalists and allies of an APC apologist particularly in Rivers state on the party.
The lawmakers argued that Damagum shouldn’t have been named as the acting national chairman of the party as the constitution of the party demands that someone from the geopolitical zone of the suspended national chairman should naturally take over the party’s leadership.
The lawmakers also referred to the situation in Rivers state where an unknown list of caretaker committee emerged. According to them, Damagum is allegedly trying to impose members of the APC on the party.
They said: “Fellow Nigerians and gentlemen of the press, it is with a heavy heart that we have summoned you today to come and hear us out. We appreciate the gesture and we will not take it for granted.
“Gentlemen, many of you may have heard rumors about ongoing events in my party, our party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) where there have been allegations of doctoring Caretaker Committee members lists 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 rumor but fact. We have obtained very credible intelligence on the goings in the 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 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 which Nigerians would have loved the PDP as an institution it truly is to play has been abdicated for a plate of porridge.
“A serious leadership would have set up structures to review what, why, and how the party failed to win the last presidential election and also failed to secure a majority in both chambers of the National Assembly, rather the Umar Damagum led NWC is assiduously working to hand over the party to the ruling APC and their agents.
“A serious leadership would have looked into the acts of open anti-party activities, established why they happened, and set up measures to ensure that it never happened again in the party.
“A serious party leadership would have since the end of elections or even the tribunal matters gone around to thank members and rally them for the challenge ahead of being the opposition and offering a credible alternative to the people. We do not have any of these.
“But again imagine if we had such with the current state of the nation. Imagine the suffering of Nigerians because the PDP as the opposition does not have direction due to the activities of Damagum and Co. This is very disheartening.
“Disheartening because this is a man who is not supposed to be in the office in the first place. He was only constitutionally allowed to step in and midwife the process through which the North Central Zone where the Chairmanship of the party was originally zone to present another person who would complete the slot of the North Central. 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 PDP and is very comfortable serving APC interests.”
