- Cancels NEC Meeting
By Kolawole Ojebisi
In a dramatic twist to the protracted crisis rocking the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the major opposition party has reinstated Senator Samuel Anyanwu as its National Secretary.
This is as the party also cancelled its National Executive Committee meeting earlier scheduled for June 30.
These couple of decisions were announced by the party’s Acting National Chairman, Umar Damagum at a press conference held at the PDP’s national secretariat in Abuja on Wednesday.
Speaking at the press conference, Damagum described Anyanwu’s reinstatement as “difficult but widely accepted among key stakeholders”.
He also added that the party had resolved to reintegrate Anyanwu into the National Working Committee (NWC).
Damagum made the announcement in the presence of Bauchi State Governor Bala Mohammed, former Senate President Bukola Saraki, and other party stakeholders.
According to the PDP National acting chairman the party will now hold an expanded National Caucus meeting on June 30 instead of the previously scheduled NEC meeting.
He stated, “So I want to use this opportunity to tell you that we will do the right thing and it is the decision of most members of this party, led by the organs of the party. The leaders of the organs of the party will have an expanded caucus, so that we will discuss extensively the way forward with the NEC. That would be on the 30th. We will issue the notice that there is not going to be an NEC, but an expanded caucus.
“As it is, like they (INEC) told us, they don’t have any notice of the NEC meeting from us because I was the only person who signed, and we have not followed the guidelines. So that caucus will take a decision for NEC as well as all critical issues brought before us and leading to our national convention.
“Anyanwu will resume as the National Secretary. I think that’s the most important thing.”
Damagum added, “INEC is our regulator and they have told us their position as it is, as it affects the issue surrounding the National Secretary. We are all aware that the National Secretary is a signatory of this party. It is a critical position that he holds.
“As such, we have decided to abide by the advice they gave us, especially as we have a very, very important election before us, that is the FCT election, and we are running out of time. So we have no option but to abide by the decision.
“After due consultation and everything, we thought it’s a bitter pill and we have to swallow it. I want to use this opportunity to call on all our party faithful to know that it was a difficult decision. But the survival of the party is more than all of us, more than everything that you feel that you know and yearn for.”
These decisions were taken less than 24 hours after the party stalwarts held a closed meeting with the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Yakubu Mohammed.
Apparently, the steps were taken to resolve the power tussle over the position of National Secretary between Sunday Udeh-Okoye and Anyanwu supposedly necessitated by supremacy battles among key members of the party.
Anyanwu is an ally of the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike and this fact made some prominent members of the party to stand against him retaining his position as the scribe of the PDP, considering that Wike is now serving in an All Progressives Congress-led administration.
This led to an imbroglio that further polarised the party and caused repeated delays of its NEC meetings.
However, at a meeting of the executive in April the PDP appointed a neutral party member Setonji Koshoedo as Acting National Secretary in a bid to manage the crisis.
Embroiled in these crises which led to protracted legal tussles, the party kept sending conflicting names to INEC as the party’s scribe despite a subsisting verdict by the Supreme Court recognizing Anyanwu.
Without taking a clear and unanimous position on who’s the party’s national scribe, Damagum wrote a letter to INEC in the wake of the party’s 99th NEC meeting on May 30th that the PDP had scheduled its 100th NEC meeting for June 30.
Meanwhile, the INEC boss on Tuesday notified the party can’t proceed with its scheduled 100th NEC meeting, citing the PDP’s internal rules which require that such letter be jointly signed by both the National Chairman and the National Secretary, urging due compliance with proper procedures.
