PDP NEC decision made public, Wike’s camp reacts
The camp of the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Nyesom Wike, in the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, are in a joyous mood.
This was a sequel to the endorsement of the Amb. Umar Damagum-led National Working Committee, NWC, by the party’s second highest decision-making body- the National Executive Committee, NEC, at its 98th meeting in Abuja, yesterday.
The camp of former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, had moved to have Damagum return to his position as Deputy National Chairman (North) to let the North-Central produce a substantive national chairman to complete the truncated tenure of the immediate past chairman, Dr. Iyorchia Ayu.
It was gathered that the Atiku camp has returned to the drawing board to re-strategise.
Chairman of the PDP Governors Forum and Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammed, while fielding questions from newsmen after the NEC meeting, expressed delight that contrary to expectations of the party’s enemies, the meeting was held in a peaceful atmosphere.
He said: “ You can see there was no dissension and rancour. It was planned that the party will have an implosion. PDP is more than that. This party is a united party that is guided by experience and constitutionality.
There were a lot of permutations and mischievous thinking outside there. We looked at all the issues and we worked along our guidelines and constitution. There is no problem, dissension or problem among members.”
On the issue of a new chairman from North-Central, the PDPGF Chairman said: “In the next two months, we will see a lot of activities. Leadership is a responsibility. We said in September we would have come out from our congresses.
“We will look at the issue of leadership and look at the issue of our constitution where it will be. And we will do it with no rancour.”
Also speaking shortly after the NEC meeting, Damagum told reporters that the position he occupied was not a matter of life and death matter for him.
“This is not a matter and life and death. I am still an elected member of this NEC. Even If I revert to deputy national chairman I’m still a member of NWC. The issue of surviving or not does not arise.”
National Publicity Secretary of the party, Debo Ologunagba, who read the communique after the NEC meeting, said: “The NEC of our great party, at its 98th meeting today, April 18, 2024, thoroughly assessed the state of affairs of the nation and the party and resolved as follows:
“NEC commends all the organs of the party for their collective resilience, steadfastness and commitment towards the unity, stability and sustenance of our great party despite daunting challenges.
Also in his opening remarks at the beginning of the NEC meeting, Damagum gave an account of his stewardship since he assumed office about one year ago.
He said that the last general elections came with lots of unexpected challenges that robbed the PDP of victories.
“These challenges were both internal and external. However, the outcomes of the general elections were appropriately challenged by our well selected legal teams in all the Election Petition Tribunals down to the final court where the final verdicts were delivered.
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