Crisis rocks PDP as BoT chair, secretary disagree over report on Elumelu

*Our stance on minority leadership subsists – NWC

Crisis is rocking the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) over the report of a committee set up by the party to probe why its members in the House of Representatives voted Hon. Ndudi Elumelu as the Minority Leader of the House contrary to the party’s directive.

There are serious concerns in the party regarding whether the Senator Iyorchia Ayu-led panel constituted by the Board of Trustees (BoT) submitted its report to the National Working Committee (NWC) for consideration.

Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State had few days ago, accused the Ayu-led panel of corruption and hailed a former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Austin Opara, for withdrawing from the committee.

Addressing a press conference on Thursday in Abuja, after a three-hour meeting of the BoT, Chairman of the board, Senator Walid Jibrin said the Ayu-led committee was yet to submit its report to the NWC.

Jibrin also said the BoT has put up a programme to visit aggrieved party leaders and members across the country including Governor Nyesom Wike, who also alleged in Port Harcourt that some PDP governors used to meet President Muhammadu Buhari who is of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the night.

“We have visited our presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar in Dubai, and we are planning to visit other leaders of the party as well. We want peace and unity in the party so that the party will be strong. So, we call on members to remain calm,” he said.

Jibrin said the Ayu’s committee set up by the BoT was yet to submit its report to the NWC for appropriate sanctions through the Chief Tom Ikimi-led Disciplinary Committee.

But as the BoT Chairman was still denying the submission of the report, the BoT Secretary, Adolphus Wabara who sat beside him interrupted and told newsmen that the report had been submitted to the PDP National Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus.

Wabara said, “The BoT considered the report on Elumelu and handed it over to the National Chairman because the National Chairman is a member of the BoT and the NWC.”

But angered by what Wabara said Jibrin added, “We have not submitted the report. I am the BoT Chairman, I am old enough.”

Earlier, the NWC in a statement issued by the PDP National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, said the organ was yet to receive the report from the BoT and therefore its stance on Elumelu and others who went against the party’s directive subsisted.

“The National Working Committee (NWC) hereby clarifies that it has not yet received any report from the Board of Trustees (BoT) concerning the outcome of the five-member committee it set up to intervene on the contentious matter.

“Consequently, the NWC maintains that it has not taken any decision to review its subsisting stance on the minority leadership of the House of Representatives,” the NWC said.

Our correspondent reports that the two leaders of the BoT left the venue of the briefing angrily.