The Senate Minority Leader, Abba Moro, has said the survival of Ambassador Umar Lliya Damagum as Acting National Chairman of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) was not victory for Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, or former Vice President Atiku Abubakar.
Recall that the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the PDP met on Thursday in Abuja, where they retained the party’s acting national chairman, Umar Damagum, to act until August, despite pressure from its members in the House of Representatives and other stakeholders loyal to Atiku.
But in a statement at the weekend, Moro said Damagum’s “survival” was only a decision unanimously agreed on by the relevant stakeholders of the PDP for the party to forge ahead.
Moro cautioned that whatever happens in the party should not be tied to Wike and Atiku, stressing that the whole issue was not about victory or defeat for anybody but about PDP.
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“The constitution of our party has a well spelt-out succession plan. Section 35 (3C) states that where a vacancy exists, someone from the zone of the immediate past occupier of the office shall be appointed by NEC to complete the tenure of the person who vacated the office,” he said.
“For the position of the National Chairman, we will look at the succession plan of the party, in accordance with the constitutional provisions, and produce a replacement for Senator Iyorchia Ayu from North Central now that he has heeded to our plea and withdrawn his case from the court.
“We will go to the next NEC meeting with open minds and invoke the relevant sections of the constitution to produce his replacement,” he said.
