Our hands are clean — NWC members

FOLLOWING the trouncing of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, at the last general electionsof March 28 and April 11, things are no longer rosy between PDP governors and national officers of the party.


Apart from losing the presidency, which it hasheld for 16 years, the PDP lost its majority in the National Assembly and will be the leading opposition in the next dispensation having won 46 senatorial seats out of 109 while the All Progressives Congress (APC) cornered 60. The same thing applied in the House of Representatives. From a height of 21 state governors, the party has only 13 slots now. It lost in its traditional states of Adamawa, Plateau; Niger, Kaduna, Benue, Bauchi and Jigawa.

Consequently, governors elected on the platform of the PDP want the National Chairman of the party, Alhaji Adamu Muazu and other members of the National Working Committee, NWC to take the path of honour and resign immediately.

Path of honour

This was the outcome of the marathon meeting of 19PDP governors held between Tuesday night and early hours of Wednesday at the Akwa Ibom Governor’s Lodge, Asokoro, Abuja where the governors resolved that it has become imperative for the national officers to go and pave the way for anew leadership.

PDP leaders’ post-election gathering

The meeting, which was the first of its kind since the PDP lost the presidency after 16 years of leadership to the Presidential Candidate of the APC, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari, retd, was a post-mortem on the election and to discuss the way forward for the party, especially the move to heal inflicted wounds, re-strategise and reposition the party.

It wasgathered that Mu’azu; the National Legal Adviser, Victor Kwon and all the 19 governors were at the closed-door meeting.

A source at the meeting told Vanguard that Mu’azu and his team were later asked to excuse the governors.

Soon after they left, sourcessaid the governors agreed that the party would need fresh persons and against that backdrop, Muazu and histeam must pave the way for the fresh blood that would be required to reposition the party.

NWC in marathon meeting


Following the decision of the governors, who want to take total control of the party, members of the NWC rushed into a marathon meeting even though they were said to be on two weeks break.

To prevent staff and others from knowing about the emergency meeting, they held it in the office of the National Chairman rather than at the traditional NWC hall with the National Secretary, Professor Wale Oladipo; National Woman leader, Chief Kema Chikwe; National Financial Secretary, Elder Bolaji Anani; National Treasurer, Bala Buhari; National Legal Adviser, Barrister Victor Kwon; National Auditor, Wole Adeyanju; DeputyNational Secretary, Onwe Solomon Onwe and National Youth leader, Abdullahi Maibasira in attendance.

As the meetingof the NWC was going on at Wadata Plaza, Governor Henry Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State, who dressed casually in Tee- shirt, walked in.

Vanguard gathered that Dickson who went straight to the office of the National Chairman, was said to have delivered the message of President Jonathan on the need for the leadership to resign.

NWC members fight back, call for public hearing

As a way of fighting back, members of the NWC are poised for a show down with the governors as they have vowed not to resign. They are calling for a public hearing into who caused the collapse of PDP between the governors and NWC. The leadership of the party is insisting that at the public hearing, members, stakeholders and leaders of the party would listen to viewsfrom everyone to ascertain who created problemsthat led to the poor performance of the party.

According to the PDP leadership whose tenure ends next year, the bestoption isto allow asmooth transition, cautioning the governors that resignation as an option would not work.

Govs arm-twisted us to impose candidates

They alleged that the governors arm twisted them to get whatever they wanted asthatwas the cause of the problem and not them as members of NWC.

According to members of the NWC, apart from Delta and Ebonyi states, all the PDP governors got the candidates they wanted asthey pushed unpopular candidates.

However, to present a united front some leaders of the party have waded in to break truce between the governors and the NWC.

FILE PHOTO: MEETING: From the left, Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta State; Governor Theodore Orji of Abia State; Governor Jonah Jang of Plateu State; Governor Sulivan Chime of Enugu State; Governor Liyel Imokeh of Cross River State; Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State; Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State and the Kogi State Governor, Captain Idris Wada departing after a closed-door meeting between PDP Governors and President Goodluck Jonathan at the State House, Abuja.

GMB my HERO
AMEACHI my ROLE MODEL