BY PHILIP NWOSU
Major stakeholders in Imo State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have risen in strong condemnation of the repeated state congress, which held in Owerri on Monday.
They described it as illegal, illogical and a complete nullity, warning that those behind the action were out to destroy the party in the state.
Former Legal Adviser of the party in the state, Chief C.O.C. Akaolisa, in a statement in Owerri Monday said the purported repeat state congress was designed by a few disgruntled members of the party to cause confusion wondering how the same group that has accepted the ward and LGA and state congress held by the Ali Modu Sheriff led National Executive of the party can turn around to hold a repeat state congress.
Akaolisa reasoned that by opting to hold repeat state congress, the group in Imo has exposed themselves to ridicule because according to him, “a repeat congress implies that you are repeating what had been done earlier. So, if you agree that a state Congress had been done earlier, why the repeat? What informed it and who authorised it”?
The legal luminary explained that after the ward, LGA and state congresses of the part early this year, the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party which is the highest organ of the party, met in Abuja and approved the results of the congresses, adding that the ward, LGA and state congresses of Imo were approved by the NEC and noted that there has been no other NEC meeting since then to decide anything to the contrary.
“To the best of my knowledge NEC approved Imo State congress and I know that there were only four states, where NEC said there should be a repeat of the state congresses and Imo is not one of them. So who gave these people the authority to hold a repeat congress and for what purpose? So you see the entire exercise is illegal and a complete nullity”, he declared.
A member of the House of Representative, Goodluck Opiah, said he was shocked to hear of another state congress in the state when every member of the party in Imo knows that “we have held ward, LGA and state congresses”, He added that the thing outstanding in the party is the National Convention, which was stopped by the court.