Rivers 2015 And The Rising Crisis Within Pdp: It is an open secret that there is an on-going implosion within the ranks of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Rivers State which became the main opposition party in the state following the defection of Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi and majority of members of the state House of Assembly and National Assembly to the All Progressives Congress (APC). ANAYO ONUKWUGHA writes on the latest crisis in the state. The crisis within the PDP is not unconnected with the belief of a lot of the party’s chieftains, especially those from the Ijaw-speaking communities in the state, that the Chief Felix Obuah-led state executive committee is bent on handing over the party’s ticket for the 2015 governorship election in the state to the minister of state for Education, Chief Ezebunwo Nyesom Wike. The PDP chieftains believe that the recent decision of the Obuah-led executive committee not to use zoning arrangement in the nomination of the party’s gubernatorial candidate was meant to clear the way for Wike, who incidentally hails from the same Ikwerre ethnic nationality like Amaechi. Also, the aggrieved party chieftains believe that the Grassroots Development Initiative (GDI), a political pressure group financed by the minister, and meant to be under the PDP, is wielding so much power and has even taken over the machinery of the party in the state. Another indicator that all is not well with the PDP in the state is the fact that presently, there are no fewer than 24 petitions against the Obuah-led executive committee of the party before the newly-constituted Integration Committee of the party. Few days ago, no fewer than nine supporters of the PDP were injured when youths, believed to be supporters of the party invaded a meeting of concerned stakeholders of the PDP, at Delta Hotels, in Old GRA, Port Harcourt. Several chieftains of the party, including the former commissioner for Education, and coordinator of the Rivers Mainstream Coalition (RMC), a conglomerate of socio-political organizations rooting for President Goodluck Jonathan’s second term in office, Professor Israel Owate; former commissioner for Water Resources, Hon Lolo Ibieneye; former member of the state House of Assembly, Hon Elemchukwu Ogbowu, and governorship aspirant on the platform of the party, Hon Oseleye Ojuka, however, escaped unhurt, as the invading youths used chairs and tables to attack anyone on site. The meeting, which was to discuss the zoning arrangement of the PDP as it affects the governorship slot, reconvened later after the arrival of a detachment of policemen from the Old GRA Police station. To Owate, the only way the party can match the ruling APC in the 2015 general election is for the national leadership of the party to dissolve the Obuah-led executive committee, which he described as a ‘docile two-man state working committee’, and the appointment of a caretaker committee to run the affairs of the party for a while. He said, “In the past two years, following the court judgement delivered on May 14 2013, which sacked Chief G.U Ake and Hon Adokiye Oruwari, as chairman and secretary of the state PDP, respectively, and replaced them with Brother Felix Obuah and Hon Walter Ibibia as chairman and secretary, respectively, the PDP in Rivers State has been docile and riddled with inactivity culminating in mass exodus of our members to the rival All Progressives Congress (APC). “The Rivers State PDP had remained comatose despite another court judgement aimed at entrenching the Obuah/Walter executive committees, including its contentious inauguration that has failed to gain recognition. The situation was brought about by the fact that the court judgement that brought Felix Obuah to office only produced two persons: Brother Felix Obuah (chairman) and Hon Ibibia Walter (secretary), who were the plaintiffs in the suit and did not sue in a representative capacity. “We call on the national executive committee of our great party to implement the followings: Invoke its constitutional powers as provided in part VIII, Section 5, Sub-section 5(2) (e) of the PDP constitution (as amended) to dissolve the docile two-man Rivers State working committee and appoint a caretaker committee to run the party until another executive committee is elected.” Alleging that presently, the party does not have a membership register occasioned by the defection of some officers of the party to the APC, who left with the party’s register, Owate accused Obuah and Ibibia of deliberately collapsing the PDP structure in the state into GDI. The RMC coordinator said, “The Rivers State PDP has been run unconstitutionally by only a two-man executive, a situation which has made the party a limited liability company of those who claimed they incorporated it in the Abuja High Court. “The running of Rivers State PDP by a two-man executive led by Obuah and Ibibia Walter has adversely affected and disrupted the functioning of Rivers State PDP at the ward, local government, senatorial districts, and state levels as the party does not have a proper membership register and does not have legitimate and properly constituted party officers at the various levels. “This is because the PDP officers that defected with Governor Rotimi Amaechi took with them PDP membership registers and confiscated some party offices. Consequently, the Rivers State PDP cannot have properly constituted ward congresses, local government area caucuses, local government area congresses, senatorial district caucuses, state caucus, state executive committee, and state party congress. “This situation is orchestrated by the two-man state working committee that has deliberately collapsed Rivers State PDP into the Grassroots Development Initiative (GDI), an organization led by a serving minister of state from Rivers State. The GDI now acts in place of PDP in Rivers State.” Recently, a meeting of the PDP Integration Committee with aggrieved members of the party in the state and the other states in the South-South geo-political zone, billed to hold at the party’s zonal office in Port Harcourt, was suddenly put off, and the same concerned PDP stakeholders pointed accusing fingers at the minister and the Obuah-led executive committee of the party. Although, the administrative secretary of the zonal PDP, Mr Usen Edemekong, explained that the reason for the indefinite postponement of the meeting was due to the scheduled zonal rally of the party, held last Saturday in Benin City, the Edo State capital. A governorship aspirant on the platform of the party, Engr Bekinbo Dagogo-Jack, and a chieftain of the party, Chief Anabs Sara-Igbe, think otherwise. To Dagogo-Jack, who is also chairman of the Presidential Taskforce on Power, he could not fathom out what prompted the sudden postponement of such an important meeting, saying, “I came for the reconciliation meeting but we were surprised to be told at the secretariat that the meeting was postponed. I think that it is important for us to meet and reconcile our aggrieved members.” For Sara-Igbe, he was worried that such a crucial meeting which was meant to bring every member of the PDP back to fold could be cancelled even when it has been widely publicized in the media, insisting that the Obuah-led PDP has violated the provisions of the party by declaring that no political office would be zoned in the forth coming election. He said, “Obuah led PDP has violated the rule of the party and we don’t want PDP to fail in the state in the 2015 election. Certain provisions of the party restrain the state EXCO from suspending or expelling certain officers of the party. But Obua has expelled all commissioners in the state and the entire members of the House of Assembly. “Nyesom Wike (minister of state for Education) has boasted that he was going to buy everybody that is necessary when the time comes. If this peace meeting does not hold, then I am afraid the PDP in Rivers State may be heading for the rocks. We want the state PDP to zone all the political offices because the party constitution and the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria make provisions for rotation of offices.” While it is surprising that the leadership of PDP in the state has refused to react to the fracas that occurred at the concerned stakeholders meeting, as well as the postponement of the meeting of the party’s Integration Committee, the ruling APC, said it was saddened by the decision of members of the PDP to resort to member-to-member violence. Stay up to date, follow us on Twitter; @LeadershipNGA Original link Read More goo.gl/bn1tkB (y) ✍comment ☏share
Posted on: Sun, 28 Sep 2014 02:27:10 +0000
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