Leadership / Nigeria: The Board of Trustees (BoT) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday assumed national leadership of the party, pending the resolution of the leadership crisis rocking the party.
BoT members, led by their chairman, Senator Walid Jubrin, met with the staff of the party at the party’s secretariat, signalling the first formal activity to take place in the premises after a nine-day lockdown.
Addressing the staff, Senator Jibrin, who gave the assurance that the BoT members had not come to take over the party, however noted that there cannot be a vacuum in the management of the affairs of the party.
He added that the BoT had to step in because there was no court order against it unlike the Senator Ahmed Markarfi-led Caretaker Committee and the erstwhile national chairman, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff.
Jibrin thanked the Inspector General of Police (IGP) for lifting the lockdown on the party’s national secretariat, and said that the BoT was entrusted with the constitution of the party to be in charge of its assets and liabilities.
“BoT remains the only legal body in the whole set-up that has no court order against it. We are here to play our role and not take over the secretariat. We are hoping that the problems will be resolved.
“BoT is taking it upon itself to resolve the problems in the party. We have gone very far in resolving the problems. We are making contacts and consultations.
“The BoT has not come to apportion blames. We seek your cooperation; we are not here to take over offices of anybody. Your offices are our offices. We will do our best to ensure normalcy in the party. We will do that without fearing anybody. We will do that so that our name and role will be fully maintained.”
He stated that the PDP was not about to crumble, but that it had come to stay.
“We are only on sabbatical leave. When we are done, we will return to the centre. We are going back in 2019 but we can only do that if we cooperate. We have come to play the role of fathers,” he said.
On the internal wrangling affecting the PDP ahead of the Edo and Ondo governorship primaries, Jibrin said the party elders were putting their heads together so that all the problems will be resolved soon.
When he was asked the time the Markarfi caretaker committee would assume duty, the BoT secretary, Ojo Maduekwe, said the party leaders were awaiting the resolution of the court orders hindering the committee from performing, adding that “caretaker committee members are working somewhere, that is why we don’t see them here.”
While he called for the speedy resolution of the matters in court, internally, he added that the “biggest impunity is to rush to court. All those that have matters in court should withdraw them.”
Party loses 2 House members to APC
The crisis rocking the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) took another dimension as two members of the House of Representatives elected on the platform of the party, Hon. Tony Nwoye (Anambra) and Hon. Emmanuel Udende (Benue), yesterday defected to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
However, the formal announcement made by Speaker Yakubu Dogara at plenary was greeted with an uproar from lawmakers of both the PDP and APC, who expressed their displeasure and excitement respectively.
The duo in their separate formal notification letters addressed to the House alluded to the leadership crisis rocking the PDP as their reasons for dumping the party for the APC and that they could no longer serve their constituencies effectively.
The two lawmakers said that since the PDP had been allegedly factionalised, they did not wish to belong to any of the factions laying claim to the leadership of the party.
But the minority leader of the House, Hon. Leo Ogor, raised a Point of Order to counter the claims of the defectors – that the PDP was divided into three factions.
Ogor contended that no recognised institution, such as the courts, had ruled that the party had broken into factions, and described the defections by the lawmakers as unconstitutional, citing Section 68 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) which states that “any member who must resign on the platform where he/she was elected must declare his/her seat vacant.”
While insisting that there was no crisis in the party, Ogor dismissed the argument that the party was fictionalised and vowed that the party would head for the court to ensure that the seats of the two lawmakers are declared vacant, which would make them go back to their constituencies to re-test their popularity.
PDP declares seat of defecting lawmakers vacant
The Board of Trustees (BoT) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has said that its members in the National Assembly who have defected would lose their seats.
The party stated that it would rely on the clear decisions of cases decided in the Supreme Court over such defections, vowing that it will declare as vacant the legislative seats of PDP members who defect to another party.
Two members of the PDP in the National Assembly, Hon. Tony Nwoye (Anambra) and Hon. Emmanuel Udende (Benue), recently dumped the party for the governing All Progressives Congress (APC), but the PDP is ready to contest the matter.
A statement by the secretary of the BoT, Ojo Maduekwe, said: “Any suggestion of a faction is at best ill-informed and ignorant, and at worst, is part of a grand plan to decimate the only political platform today that is ready, experienced and able to honour the nation’s invitation to have a credible opposition party – that will hold government of the day accountable and thereby strengthen and nourish our young democracy.
“Let it therefore be understood by those of our members in the National Assembly who may be tempted to jump ship, or have already jumped, that on the basis of clear decisions of cases decided in the Supreme Court, they stand the risk of losing their seats in Parliament if they went ahead with their latest indulgence.
“Our party will insist on a declaration of vacancy and subsequent elections in affected constituencies in the event of such misguided defections.
“The pattern of PDP electoral victories all over the federation since the 2015 general elections shows that where there is election arising from such vacancies, PDP will return a more credible and more loyal representative of the people.”
