NWC excluded us from governors’ largesse, says PDP official who resigned

One of the seven national officers of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who tendered his resignation has accused the National Working Committee (NWC) under Uche Secondus of sidelining them.

Daily Trust reports that their resignation followed a long-standing sour relationship with Secondus.

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One of the officers who spoke with Daily Trust on condition of anonymity said, “incapacity and bad treatment” exhibited by Secondus were responsible for their action.

“The national chairman of PDP is not competent to manage the affairs of the party.  He lacks the managerial capacity to manage PDP,” he said.

Another officer said since they were elected in 2017, the deputy national officers only met three times with Secondus.

“It is not as if he called us; on those three occasions, we sought audience with him and the most annoying part is that during Christmas and Sallah festivities, the NWC would visit our governors. They would collect money and other items but I can tell you that they don’t share anything with the deputies.”

“To him, we are just a necessary evil to be tolerated but never to be catered for. We all have our constituencies and our followers but from the way we are being treated, it appears they see us as nothing but appendages forced on them by the party’s constitution,” he said.

The Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Diran Odeyemi, who is Chairman of the deputy national officers of the party, confirmed their resignation to Daily Trust in a telephone interview last night.

He explained that the NWC members who resigned met with Secondus Tuesday.

He added that Secondus and the national officers who resigned were still holding talks and would continue to talk until all contentious issues were resolved in the interest of the party.

Odeyemi said, “I align myself with the decision of other deputies. I am their chairman, I am in London now, but I align with the decision of my colleagues. They met with Secondus today (yesterday) and talks continue.”

Multiple sources at the PDP national secretariat confided in Daily Trust last night that more aggrieved members of the NWC would resign while some were planning to leave the party.

At a press conference in Abuja, the PDP National Youth Leader, Hon Udoh Okoye, asked Secondus to resign over his alleged inability to resolve the crisis in the party.

“Mr Chairman has nothing to offer to the party; it’s only to come here and deceive us. There is a sharp division in our NWC right now; many more NWC members are more aggrieved than me.

“Today, I have asked him in our NWC meeting to resign his position as the chairman of this party because he cannot lead this party to victory. I am also asking the leaders, the governors, the founding fathers, the youth, the women to rise up to rescue our party from the hand of an incompetent leader like Secondus because he is not willing to take us anywhere,” he said.

The party’s National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, confirmed last night that the party had received the notice of resignation from deputies.

“The NWC of our great party at its meeting today (yesterday), received the notice of resignation from deputies who are elected members of the National Executive Committee (NEC).

“The meeting of the NWC and the deputies immediately took place to dialogue on the issues that were raised. The party will look into the grievances raised by members of NEC as well as members of the NWC.

“The internal conflict resolution mechanism of our party has also been immediately activated to put these issues behind us. We call on all the leaders, stakeholders and members of our great party to remain calm as we collectively resolve these issues,” the spokesman said.

Reacting, the Special Adviser to Secondus on Media, Ike Abonyi said, “The media office of the national chairman has described as unfortunate the statement from the party’s national youth leader calling on the national chairman of the party, Prince Uche Secondus, to resign from his position.

“The agenda of Hon. Udo Okoye and his sponsors are to take this party back to Egypt but they have failed because the party is focused and unwilling to look back as they match towards regaining power.”

Meanwhile, governors elected on the platform of the PDP in a statement last night by their Chairman and Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal called for calm within the party.