Politics

Fresh Crisis Hits PDP As 60 Reps Demand Damagum’s Resignation As Party Chairman

Published

1 month ago

April 8, 2024

Editor

Sixty members of the House of Representatives elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, on Monday, called on the party’s acting National Chairman, Umar Damagum, to resign.

The 60 lawmakers led by the PDP member representing Ideato North/Ideato South Federal Constituency, Imo State, Ikenga Ugochinyere, demanded the resignation of Damagum, accusing him, among others, of being in bed with the ruling All Progressives Congress.

This is just as the opposition lawmakers accused Damagum of plotting to use the Federal High Court to legalise the extension of the tenure of Rivers State Local Government Areas Chairmen,

Meanwhile, Minority Leader of the House and a known political associate of the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, Mr Kingsley Chinda, was copiously absent at Monday’s briefing.

“We demand the immediate resignation of Damagun as Acting National Chairman of PDP for anti-party activities and allow the North Central to produce the Acting Chairman as clearly stated in the PDP Constitution or watch us reconsider our membership of the party in the months ahead if the right thing is not done.

“We also call for the removal of Damagun by the party’s National Executive Committee with further sanctions against him for his anti-party activities.

“It is our call on Damagum to immediately resign so that the party can midwife a process and hand over to someone from North Central in line with the provisions of our great party. It is also our call to the leaders of our party from the North Central, Governor Caleb Mutfwang of Plateau, Senators David Mark, Bukola Saraki, Abba Moro, Gabriel Suswam and Babangida Aliyu, to rise up now and save the soul of the part,” Ugochinyere said on behalf of his colleagues.

He noted allegations of “Doctoring of caretaker committee members lists in Rivers State and at least 10 other states. This story is quite unfortunate, and I can confirm to you all that it is not a rumour but a fact. We have obtained very credible intelligence on the goings in our party’s Wadata House national secretariat, and it does not sound right at all. We currently have a national leadership in the PDP that is in bed with the APC and working extremely hard to hand over the party to the APC.

“Following the removal of Iyorchia Ayu as national chairman of our party and assumption of office by Damagun, who was elected as Deputy National Chairman to act in his stead, the party has only known misfortune and has abdicated its responsibility as the leading opposition party in the country. That role which Nigerians would have loved the PDP to play as an institution it truly is has been abdicated for a plate of porridge,” he added.

Describing Damagum as unfit to lead the party to battle, the lawmakers said the Yobe politician “Was only constitutionally allowed to step in, hold the fort and midwife the process through which the North Central zone where the chairmanship of the party was originally zone to present another person who would complete the slot of the North Central,” adding however that “Not only did Damagun hold tight unto the seat for well over a year now, he has abdicated every responsibility of the office of the chairman of PDP and is very comfortable serving APC interests.

“There had been an agreement of a broad spectrum of the party leadership when it became clear that Damagum was not interested in conducting elections but in appointing caretaker committees in at least 19 states where the tenures of the state and local government leaders were expiring to extend the tenures of these officials by three months. This decision, which was made to cover every state, was the wisdom that restrained Damagum from announcing a wholesale list of a majority of caretaker committees populated by APC agents masquerading as PDP members.

“However, despite that decision to retain everybody, Mr Damagun went ahead and received a list of APC agents and announced them as members and leaders of the PDP local government caretaker committees wholesomely in Rivers State and partially in at least 10 other states. This is a direct attempt to kill the PDP and ensure it goes into extinction.”

The PUNCH reports that lawmakers also accused Damagum of failing to retain most of the states in the South-East, noting that today, the party is only in charge of Enugu State, “Which literally snatched from the jaw of a lion.”

He added that the party “Lost Benue, Abia and Sokoto states. The PDP leadership kept mute while the PDP state and federal lawmakers lost their seats at the tribunal and Court of Appeal on the grounds that were obviously untenable, which have since been upturned by the Supreme Court. If the party had spoken up and raised the necessary alarm, all our colleagues in Imo and Plateau States particularly would have been with us in the assembly today.”

Addressing the National Chairman frontally, Ugochinyere said, “You have a chance to resign immediately, leave, or be embarrassed out of the party. At least 60 of us in the PDP in the National Assembly will severe all relationships with the Damagun leadership until he leaves office. At the scheduled National Executive Committee meeting, if Damagun by any maneuvering however conjectured, remains in office with the help of his APC friends at the end of the day; the party is now heading to the final slaughter shed.”

Politics

JUST IN: Ex-PDP Deputy National Chair, Oyedokun Defects To APC

Published

10 hours ago

May 16, 2024

Editor

A former Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Alhaji Shuaib Oyedokun, has resigned his membership of the party and announced defection to the All Progressives Congress.

Oyedokun, a notable personality within the political circle in Osun State and beyond, said he decided to dump the PDP after consultation with his loyalists.

He said he would be joining APC, where his experience, efforts, and leadership roles would be valued and appreciated.

His resignation letter addressed to the National Chairman of the PDP through the ward, local government and state chairmen of the party obtained late Thursday further read, “As a functional member and leader of PDP (Ward 13, Jagun/ Osi-Bale Ode, Odo-Otin South Local Government, Osun State,) whose high electoral productivity and value have been credibly and positively acknowledged in my ward, across the local council, state and country-wide for the enhancement of the fortune of the PDP, I have the honour (though with pain) in announcing the renunciation of my membership of the party on principle, having observed that the ideals of we, founding members, had been sorely contaminated.

“In taking this step which is not even without due consultation with my teaming loyalists in the PDP, I have consequently decided to shift my allegiance to the All Progressives Congress (APC) where I believe my experience, efforts and leadership roles would be valued and appreciated.”

Oyedokun’s defection to the APC is coming at the time the aspirant he supported during the 2022 Osun governorship primary of PDP, Mr Dotun Babayemi is also moving to the national ruling party.

Osun APC said on Wednesday that Babayemi and his supporters would be dumping PDP and joining the party at a rally scheduled to be held in Osogbo on Friday.
PUNCH

Politics

Poll: APC Has No Sellable Candidate, Nothing To Campaign On – Edo Govt

Published

3 days ago

May 13, 2024

Editor

The Edo State Government claimed on Monday that the All Progressives Congress, APC, has no credible candidate for the September 21 governorship election.

This was an assertion made by the Edo State Commissioner for Communication and Orientation, Chris Nehikhare, at a press conference in Benin City.

Nehikhare also alleged that the party is using lies and propaganda as its campaign strategy.

According to him: “The only APC strategy for the governorship election is to resort to lies and propaganda. When a party takes lies and propaganda as an election strategy, it means it has nothing to offer the people. The party lacks people with character, capacity, and intellect.”

The commissioner who took journalists through a screened shot WhatsApp chat said: “What we have here is the official APC WhatsApp platform, their own people screenshot their discussion. One of them who has a conscience asks, is this the only thing we have?”

Nehikhare, who said APC is ashamed to campaign for its candidate, noted that, as of today, nobody had heard of what the party has for the state.

“All we heard is how they are going to help their paymaster, lies and propaganda that will not help the state,” he added.

He opined that lies and propaganda are not strategies the opposition party, like APC, can use to win the September 21 governorship election.

The commissioner, who warned against misinformation and fake news ahead of the governorship election, urged media practitioners to be neutral in matters concerning lies and propaganda.

He, however, noted that Governor Godwin Obaseki’s administration has a lot of achievements to market and sell its candidate for the election.

Politics

Defection: Edo Govt, Ex-PDP BoT Member, Idahosa In Verbal War

Published

4 days ago

May 13, 2024

Editor

Edo State government and a former member of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Board of Trustees, Charles Idahosa, on Monday traded words over the latter defection to the All Progressives Congress, APC.

Recall that Idahosa resigned
formally resigned who had last month resigned from PDP, rejoined the APC on Monday in Benin City.

Speaking during his formal presentation to the APC in Benin City, he noted that he left the party four years ago due to internal crisis.

Idahosa added that he dumped the PDP because of what he described as the “damning deeds of the Obaseki-led administration in the last four years”.

He took a swipe at Obaseki for saying that PDP would win the forthcoming September governorship election with 80 per cent of votes.

“I thank God, four years later we all are wiser now. Like the Secretary said, I was a founding member of ACD, ACN and APC. The damage we did four years ago, the APC never remained the same.

“But I am glad we are back to the family. I was nominated to the Board of the Railway when I was in the APC. When I moved to the PDP, I wrote to resign my membership but it was rejected and showed my wide acceptance.

“At 71, I am not here to contest position with anybody, I am here to work. I want to urge APC to keep their eyes on the ball. It is not over until it is over.”

While lambasting Governor Obaseki for his comment that those leaving PDP have been given money, he noted that his greatest regret was not allowing the governor to resign after his first four years in office.

“When he came to beg me like a weather beaten chicken, how much did he give to me? Anytime he goes religious gathering he would say those leaving PDP have been given money.

“He came to me three times in my house to say he wants to resign, that he was tired of being governor but I appealed to him, telling him it was not about him but Benin interest.”

But in a swift reaction, the state Commissioner for Communication and Orientation, Chris Nehikhare alleged that Idahosa was never a PDP member.

Nehikhare noted that Idahosa was also never a BOT member of the party, because the party in the state rejected his nomination.

He alleged that it was as a result of the rejection that he found his way back to APC.

“I heard that he claimed to be a member of BOT of PDP but I want to challenge him to tell us when he was sworn in as a member of PDP BOT. He was not a fit and proper person. Even though he was nominated he was shunned by the party.

“It was this that drove him back to APC which he never left in the first place. He was holding on to the board appointment which was offered him while in APC prior to 2020 governorship election.

“He has reached the end of his political career. He has nothing to offer any political party or any group he joins because he believes in bread and butter politics,” Nehikhare said.