AGAIN, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has returned to the politics of picking a new chairman after Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo bowed out on Tuesday.

In the search for Nwodo’s successor, two camps have emerged: one pushing for the South-East zone to retain the party’s plum job and the other, which wants the Acting Chairman, Alhaji Haliru Bello Mohammed, to finish Nwodo’s term, which ends after the April general elections.

The South-East governors, who engineered Nwodo’s removal, The Guardian learnt, have however insisted on the zone producing the next occupant of the office because it is their share of the party’s national offices.

One issue that appeared settled is that whenever the dust settles, Enugu State, where Nwodo hails from, would no longer feature in the race to produce the next boss of the party. Abia State is also not on the line because it has occupied the office in the person of Vincent Ogbulafor, Nwodo’s predecessor. The same goes for Anambra State, which is technically knocked out, as it is controlled by the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).

Consequently, the search for the PDP new boss has been narrowed to Imo and Ebonyi states.  For now, those being tipped for the office are former Senate President Anyim Pius Anyim (Ebonyi) and Nze Fidelis Ozichukwu (Imo).

Mohammed told The Guardian yesterday that the zone where the new chairman will emerge is working hard to produce a candidate. Once that is done in line with party’s constitution, the next chairman will be named.  

Answering a question on the time it will take the party to come out with a new chairman, the acting national chairman, Bello, after receiving the report of the national convention panel from the members led by the chairman, Prof. Tunde Adeniran, at the party secretariat, said, ‘’I am in acting capacity pending the production of a substantive national chairman. The area, that is the South East to which the chairmanship is zoned is working to produce somebody and as soon as they produce, we will go through the normal processes that we have done before. This is not the first time, but nobody can give you a time range because it is a process and once the process is completed, it will be carried through according to the constitution of the party.”

PDP officials confirmed yesterday that one of the positions canvassed by some leaders of the party is that since the general election is only about three months away, the acting national chairman, Mohammed should therefore be allowed to serve out the remaining term, which elapses after the general elections to avoid hitches.

It was also learnt that other party stalwarts, especially those of the South-East extraction, are of the position that the gap be filled immediately and the replacement should still be from the zone.

According to party sources, most of the PDP leaders support the latter position. The consideration is that if the national chairman of the party is picked from any other zone outside the South-East, it might cause problems in the polity as the zone had been crying of marginalisation.    

“We are cautious in going about this thing because we have a delicate situation on our hands. We have to be very careful because this is an election period and the party is tying to ensure victory in the general polls. This is why we are of the position that a replacement should be found immediately from the zone,’’ a party source said yesterday.

Those urging the party to allow Mohammed to complete the remaining period argued that the PDP is now engrossed in preparation for elections and to do anything that will distract the attention of the leadership from campaigns may work against it, especially against the backdrop of the move being made by opposition parties to snatch power from PDP.

At the time of filing this report, the PDP National Working Committee (NWC) was meeting at ‘Legacy House in Maitama, the party’s campaign headquarters to arrive at a decision on the matter before communicating it to President Goodluck Jonathan.

PDP National Publicity Secretary of the party, Prof. Rufai Ahmed Alkali, told journalists at a press conference last Tuesday that “no decision has been taken on that matter but I think the replacement will come from the same zone.’’

Meanwhile, the Plateau State chapter of the party has asked the national secretariat to remove the Deputy Governor, Mrs. Paulin Tallen, Senator John Shagaya, and nine others from office for defecting to Labour Party.

In a letter dated January 12, 2011 and signed by the state chairman, Haruna Dabin, the chapter said: ‘’Since these defected members were elected on the platform of our great party, we are by this letter requesting you to use your good offices to remove them from office, especially those who hold party positions.’’

A political activist and lawyer, Mr. Ifeanyi Okonkwo yesterday threatened court action to stop INEC from dealing with Bello Mohammed, saying that his emergence was illegal. He said in Enugu yesterday that only Nwodo could submit the list of PDP candidates to INEC, stressing that the entire process that produced the acting chairman was sub-judice and illegal.

He said: “The whole thing is a none event because these are matters that are laughable; first of all there was a judicial proceeding in Enugu between certain elements as parties; and one of the parties in the dispute is Nwodo; and PDP is a party in the subsisting case in Enugu instituted by an aggrieved party member.

“That court assumed jurisdiction, made an order, rightly or wrongly, affecting the right and office of one of the parties, who is a defendant in the action, that person was Okwesilieze Nwodo; PDP by deciding to publicise that they were calling their National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting to discuss the subject matter of a pending suit is sub-judice abinitio.”

– Guardian

Posted by admin on Jan 19 2011. Filed under Ebonyi, Imo, Party Politics, Peoples' Democratic Party (PDP), State News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry