Newscenter Media News Between 1999 and 2020, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) held sway in Ebonyi State politics. However, the leadership crisis rocking the party since 2021 continues to undermine its stability to the point where it is currently unable to field candidates for the July 20 local council polls in the state; LAWRENCE NJOKU, reports.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will not participate in the July 20, 2024, local council election in Ebonyi State. Inquiries by The Guardian indicated that the party is not presenting candidates for the election and this is the first time such will happen since it came into being in the state.
The PDP neither sold forms nor conducted primaries for the purpose of electing those who would fly its flag in the election. Immediate past Publicity Secretary and member of the newly constituted Caretaker Committee of the party, Nwoba Chika Nwoba, learnt credence to this when he told The Guardian that the party was repositioning for future contests and not interested in any contest in the state for now.
“For now, we are not participating. We all know what local government elections are. It is exclusive for the party in power. So, engaging in it is like urging our members to come and waste their money. We had a state working committee meeting on Tuesday, June 18, and it was not part of our agenda.
“Assuming we are participating, by now we should have started selling forms and organising primaries for those who want to contest. It is not part of our plans. We are not participating.
“There is a shake-up in the party at the moment and that is as a result of some people who participated in the 2023 general election defecting to the ruling party. So, we are trying to put our house in order to be stronger for future exercises in the state and the Southeast,” he stated.
The PDP in the state has been unstable for some time now. An internal crisis that erupted before the 2023 general election has remained unresolved more than a year after the elections. In fact, while many of those who made the party thick in the state have continued to leave with their supporters, others who are left behind are yet to agree on how to forge unity and pick the pieces left of the party.
Apparently perturbed that an amicable resolution of the crisis has reached, the national leadership of the party recently set up a 15-member caretaker committee to run its affairs and restore sanity in the party within three months.
The committee, which comprises Steve Oruruo, a lawyer as chairman, and Pascal Ukwuani as the secretary, also has Jude Omoha, Francis Ibiam, Ude Akaji, Godwin Nwode, Amechi Oken, Chief Christopher Elechi Ngwuta, Dave Odey and Ezekiel Igede as members. Others members of the committee are Chika Nwoba, Emmauel Uka, Edward Ifeanyi Odanwu, Okoro Monday Ogbonnaya and Mark Onu.
Its National Vice Chairman, Ali Odefa, had while inaugurating the committee in Enugu, charged the members to “be loyal to the party first, uphold its constitution and not to pander to me or any other stakeholder” but go about their duties with utmost dispatch.
However, no sooner had the committee been inaugurated than some stakeholders began to protest against its composition. These stakeholders rejected the list, saying it was composed of people who had left the party for the All Progressives Congress (APC).
They mentioned Udeh Akaji, Francis Ibiam, Okoro Ogbonna and Dave Odeh; stressing that, “these individuals publicly resigned from PDP and joined APC.”
The group also accused the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party of reneging on the collectively agreed list of a new caretaker committee as submitted by various local council chapters of the party in the state, stressing that unless it was reversed, there may be repercussions.
One of the stakeholders, who kicked against the list, Chief Chis Usulor, threatened to quit the party if the anomaly was not resolved.
Usulor, who is a former governorship aspirant, warned that many other stakeholders and members were gearing up to officially defect from the party.
He claimed that the same practices and actions that caused the party’s defeat at the 2023 general election were still being carried out by stakeholders.
However, findings by The Guardian revealed that the NWC had altered the earlier list submitted to it to accommodate larger interests. For instance, it was gathered that while there was an agreement that the chairman and secretary of the committee should come from outside the state, those who authored the first list of the members did not reckon with certain leaders of the party on nominees from their local councils.
Former governor of the state, Dr. Sam Egwu, Ali Odefa and the member representing Afikpo North/Afikpo South Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, Iduma Igariwey, among others, were said not to have been consulted when the first list was drawn and they called for its review.
Following their protest, the list was altered and four names were substituted with the names submitted by these leaders.
“Instead of accepting the all embracing list, they turned back to start shouting that the fresh names are members of APC. It is sad that certain individuals still want to determine whatever goes on in the party after they betrayed us in the last election. How can one person single-handedly nominate 13 members of the caretaker committee and being asked to relinquish four slots he started to complain? Is that how to run a party? Even with the four names that were substituted, he still has nine members in the caretaker committee. It is an indication that they are not prepared to give peace a chance. But I can assure you that no single individual can be allowed to hijack this party again,” the source stated.
The angst over the caretaker committee is seen as part of the lingering crisis over the control of the party among factions that erupted during the congress in 2021. It was gathered that those who benefited or lost out in the congress were still bent on keeping the struggle alive for the sole of the party in the state.
The congress, held in October 2021 after former governor Dave Umahi left the party for APC, was supposed to further unite and strengthen the party but turned out to become its albatross.
The exercise first produced Toochukwu Okorie as its chairman after receiving 1,240 votes from the delegates. But the former Publicity Secretary of the Caretaker Committee, Silas Onu, who contested the same position with Okorie and got 260 votes, approached the court, claiming irregularities at the congress.
Few days later, the court sacked Okorie and pronounced Onu as the authentic chairman. However, on August 15, 2022, the Appeal Court nullified the judgment of the Federal High Court and restored Okorie as chairman. Onu approached the Supreme Court and pleaded for a stay of execution of the appellant court order pending the determination of his suit against it.
Amid the contest for an authentic chairman of the party, a governorship primary was held on May 28 and 29 for the 2023 general election and was won by Ifeanyi Odii, regarded as a neophyte in the party. The NWC, a few days later, cancelled the governorship primary and announced a fresh date, after protests that it was not all-inclusive.
The exercise repeated on June 5 and 6, 2022, was won by Senator Obinna Ogba. Odii kicked and proceeded to the Federal High Court where he secured judgment in his favour. This did not go down well with Ogba, who appealed the ruling at the Court of Appeal. The Appeal Court agreed with him and restored the primary he won as authentic.
This was further challenged by Odii at the Supreme Court and in September 2022, the apex court pronounced Odii the duly elected governorship candidate of the party. It nullified the candidature of Ogba in the governorship election.
The decision of the Supreme Court paved the way for Odii to fly the flag of the party in the 2023 governorship election. Odii had gone into that election with a tattered PDP as some members, disgruntled by the contest over the chairmanship seat and those against his emergence, refused to work and support him.
They accused him of muscling his way into the party using his financial resources, adding that supporting him in the election was like retaining power in Ebonyi South Senatorial District (Ohaozara council), where the immediate past governor (Umahi) hails from. The consequence was the poor showing recorded by the party in the election.
To further show their disdain, several members began to quit the party and join the APC. A major stakeholder like former Senate President Anyim Pius Anyim did not work for PDP in the 2023 governorship election while Senator Ogba has left for APC. Ogba left PDP after the Supreme Court upheld Governor Francis Nwifuru as the winner of the election.
The Oruruo-led caretaker committee knows the big task it is confronted with in the state. Apparently unperturbed by the issue of committee list, Oruruo has hit the ground running and scouting the nooks and crannies of the state in search of an encore for the PDP. He has called meetings and at every gathering, he had insisted that it was paramount that members reunite again with the purpose of winning power and returning the party to its lost glory.
Oruruo, an astute administrator and former secretary of the party in Enugu State, told The Guardian: “I understand the enormity of the task but we’ve made up our mind to reorganise the party, get it rejuvenated, create a new order and a semblance of peace and galvanise the spirit of the members of the party and place us on the platter of conquest.”
When he visited the Commissioner of Police in the state, Augustina Ogbodo, last week, he enthused: “We want to leave behind a united PDP with a clear vision and with the capacity to regain the leadership in Ebonyi State.
“We are building a party that people can trust by creating a plurality of opinion. We want a situation where people will have a chance to talk from another perspective. A society without an opposition party is doomed for life.”
He had told the commissioner that the party and police were partners in building a healthy society, explaining that to do that successfully, there was a need for the two bodies to work together for peace and progress.
As it is, every eye is now Oruruo to inject the magic wand that could restore lasting order in Ebonyi PDP. He has three months to do this. Not participating in the council election is bad enough, but it would be worse if 2027 eludes the party owing to the crisis.
The post Ebonyi PDP…Gasping for political oxygen over raging internal crisis appeared first on Guardian Nigeria News.