New Telegraph

Leadership crisis looms in PDP

…as seven national officers resign

Secondus incompetent, says Nat’l Youth Leader
Ude-Okoye’s position unfortunate –Secondus lSheathe your sword –Govs
Party looking at grievances, says Ologbondiyan

Barely four months to end of the tenure of its National Working Committee (NWC) the main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is grappling with leadership crisis. On Tuesday, seven of the party’s deputy national officers resigned over what they termed “bad treatment” by the PDP leadership. The National Youth Leader, Sunday Ude-Okoye, who is a member of the National Working Committee (NWC) is also threatening to resign if the National Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus, does not leave. “Mr. Uche Secondus, the National Chairman of the party, is incompetent of managing the affairs of this party; he lacks managerial capacity to manage PDP.

“He had made sure that many departments of the party did not function as effectively as it ought to function. Mr. Chairman has nothing to offer to the party only to come here and deceive us,” Ude-Okoye alleged. A source, however, told New Telegraph that the national officers were induced to resign, so as to spite the Prince Secondus-led NWC.

“Everything is politics, and now that the tenure is coming to an end, such type of things will be coming up. “We know where this is coming from, and for those who know they are not coming back, this is a good business for them. Some NWC members are promised double that amount,” the source alleged. Aside the Deputy National Chairmen and Deputy National Secretary, other elected deputy national officers are not members of the NWC.

Those who threw in the towel are the Deputy National Publicity Diran Odeyemi; Deputy National Legal Adviser, Ahmed Bello; Deputy National Women’s Leader, Umoru Hadizat; Deputy National Auditor, Divine Amina Arong; Deputy National Organising Secretary, Hassan Yakubu and Deputy National Financial Secretary, Irona Alphonsus. Copy of their resignation letters could not be obtained at press time, but one of them accused the National Chairman of marginalisation. According to him, the Deputy National Officers were not carried along by the NWC members, adding that they met with the National Chairman only thrice since their election in 2017.

“It is not as if he called us. On those three occasions, we sought audience with him,” he stated. Ude-Okoye said there is a division in the NWC, adding that many more NWC members are also aggrieved. He disclosed that he asked the National Chairman to resign at the NWC’s meeting on Tuesday “because he cannot lead this party to victory. “I am also asking the leaders, the governors, the founding fathers, the youth, the women to rise up to rescue our party from the hand of incompetent leader like Secondus because he is not willing to take us to anywhere.

“I am here to make it very clear to all Nigerians that if Secondus does not resign from the party, I am going to leave the party for him.” PDP National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, confirmed that the NWC has received the notice of the resignation from the Deputy National Officers, and assured that the party would look into the grievances raised. “The meeting of the National Working Committee and the deputies immediately took place to dialogue on the issues that were raised.

“The internal conflict resolution mechanism of our party has also been immediately activated to put these issues behind us. “We call on all the leaders, stakeholders and members of our great party to remain calm as we collectively resolve these issues,” Ologbondiyan said. Before now, there have been calls for the sack of the NWC members before December’s National Convention. Rivers State governor, Nyesom Wike is among the leaders of the party who are calling for a review of the current leadership of the party before the end of its tenure.

Between November 2020 and June this year, PDP lost three of its governors. But the National Executive Committee (NEC), at it last meeting, passed vote of confidence on the party leadership. And in a related development, the party’s National Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus, described as unfortunate, the statement credited to the National Youth Leader calling on him to resign from his position. Secondus, in a statement by his SA Media, Ike Abonyi, wondered why it took the National Youth leader three and half years before realising that he is incompetent to manage the affairs of the party.

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