Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja and Judex Okoro, Calabar
Crisis is brewing in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as members of the National Working Committee (NWC) are allegedly divided over the validation of wards and local government areas’ congresses held recently in some states.
Daily Sun learnt that some members of the NWC are up in arms against the National Chairman, Uche Secondus, for allegedly going against the decision of the national exco to suspend action on issues relating to wards and local government areas congresses in states where the exercises were considered controversial.
Sources told Daily Sun that in the aftermath of the ward and local government areas congresses, members of the NWC had resolved that issues relating to the congresses in Ekiti, Cross River, Kano and other states where there were contentions should be kept in abeyance.
However, the PDP leadership recently validated the wards and local government congresses held by one of the factions of the opposition party in Ekiti State.
While in Cross River, tension has been mounting after the State Working Committee (SWC) spurned the directive of the national leadership to inaugurate new wards and local government officials allegedly elected at factional congresses. The development has sparked a legal dispute.
A party source said some NWC members were angry that the party chairman authorised the recognition of some of the factions in the state against a collective decision that matters relating to ward and local government areas congresses should be kept on hold.
“All is not well in the party right now. Our National Chairman is the only one that can explain the current issues being raised concerning the inauguration of the ward excos because we sat as a body and resolved that the exercise should be put on hold in some places, such as Ekiti, Kano, Cross Rivers and others where we had issues to be resolved, but to the surprise of every one, the press statement on the decision was never made public.
“The non-release of the statement at the appropriate time gave room for manipulations. For instance, in Ekiti State where we have some issues to resolve, two parallel excos were inaugurated; one on Thursday and the second one on Friday, we even learnt they went to court over the matter under this lockdown,” the source stated.
PDP spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan, told Daily Sun that there was no division saying he was not aware of any decision by the NWC to keep the validation of congresses in Ekiti and Cross River on hold.
Meanwhile, the Cross River chapter of the party has hailed the NWC for extending the tenure of the State Executive Committee.
The NWC had last week extended the tenure of 23 state working committees including the Ntufam Edim Inok-led Cross River Executive Committee by three months.
The State Executive Committee is, however, to function as caretaker committee pending the state congress where a new state executive would be elected.
Hailing the national leadership shortly after the committee’s meeting with Governor Ben Ayade in Calabar, the state’s spokesman, Mr. Egbung Odama Egbung, said such a decision had gone a long way to re-uniting members and then laid to rest the speculation making the rounds that the party was factionalised.