POLITICS
Crises Hit Imo PDP as Seven SWC Members Resign
Seven members of the Imo State Working Committee (SWC) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), have resigned from their various positions and dumped the party.
The officials announced their resignation in a statement they jointly signed, which was made available to newsmen by Collins Opurozor, the Imo PDP State publicity secretary, yesterday in Owerri, the Imo State capital.
Those who resigned are Sir Martins Ejiogu, deputy chairman, Ray Emeana, secretary, and Greg G.
O.C. Nwadike, youth leader.Others include Collins Opurozor, publicity secretary; Mrs Maria Mbakwe, women leader; Josiah Eze, treasurer; and Chibuisi Obido, Vice Chairman, Orlu Zone.
The group of seven members of the Imo PDP SWC claimed that there is no indication that Senator Anyanwu is running for governorship in November.
“If he claims to be running, it is not to our knowledge as members of the State Working Committee,” they claimed.“The party does not know what his program looks like. That is, if he has any. Governorship campaigns have started, yet the party does not also know if there is anything like a campaign council.
“The rent for the Party Secretariat has since expired, and the landlord has kept harassing us. Party staff have gone without salaries since Senator Anyanwu emerged as the candidate of the party. The party cannot afford to fuel our power generating set and even purchase stationery for our offices.
“Yet, someone is parading himself as our governorship candidate. This deceit cannot be allowed to continue, and we cannot lend ourselves as tools for the deception of the Imo people. Never.
“In view of the foregoing and many other shocking discoveries which will soon be made public, we, the undersigned members of the Imo State Working Committee of the PDP, have resolved to resign our various positions in the party and dump the party en masse.
“We have today opened the floodgate of resignations and defections, and in the next couple of weeks, there will be only Senator Anyanwu left in the party,” the statement read.
On why they resigned their positions, the party officials said: “It is heartbreaking to inform all that some of us in the State Working Committee have severally escaped assassination attempts because of the wicked lies which our National Secretary sold to his violent supporters, that they misappropriated party funds.”
They avowed that when Emeka Ihedioha held sway as leader of the party, they saw a robust, vibrant, inclusive, and functional political party system. “Every success recorded by Imo PDP is owed to the ingenuity, resources, and outstanding leadership of former Governor Ihedioha,” they claimed.
Their statement further reads: “Conversely, all the maladies that have lately befallen us are squarely the making of Samdadday. And the unjust imposition of Samdadday on us as governorship candidates by the Ayu-led National Working Committee is the second most cruel occurrence in history after Cain murdered Abel.
“When Senator Anyanwu eventually succeeded at crowning himself the governorship candidate of the party, he convened a meeting of all the LGA Youth Leaders at his residence in Owerri and confessed openly that he had lied to them about financial mismanagement in the party by the State Working Committee.
“He also apologised to the State Youth Leader for the attacks and elimination attempts he had passed through because of the falsehoods he (Samdadday) had propagated. He also recanted the lies and repeated the apologies during the only meeting he has had with us as members of the SWC since he emerged as a governorship candidate. He said all the falsehoods peddled against us by him were a result of his fight for survival.
“When the State Chairman, Charles Ugwuh, made efforts to bring the police to investigate the attack, Senator Anyanwu stood against it. Is that not shocking? How can a man who says he wants to make Imo safe again be caught aiding and abetting acts of violence and insecurity, even against his own party members?”
The Abia Chapter of the INEC Staff Welfare Association (ISWA) has warned its members to uphold the integrity of the commission and guard against the culture of manipulating election results.
The Abia Chairman of the association, Mr Collins Eze, gave the advice at the group’s general meeting and end-of-year party in Umuahia.
Speaking in an interview with newsmen on the sideline of the ceremony, Eze said that the staff members were adequately aware of their enormous responsibility and should ensure free, fair and credible elections.
He said: “We have also told our colleagues that anywhere they find themselves they should make sure that they do the needful by ensuring transparency in the conduct of elections.
“We have always told them not to allow anybody to induce them with money to manipulate election results.
“I’m happy that they have been building the capacity of our colleagues on election processes.
“So, in the coming years, we won’t have any problem in ensuring free, fair and peaceful elections.”
He said that the end-of-year party was special as it afforded them the opportunity “to wine and dine together as well as thank God for sustaining them in 2024”.
Eze said that his leadership had introduced various means of assisting members in dire financial needs by providing platforms to solicit suppory for them.
He expressed gratitude to members for their support and cooperation, describing them as the “secret behind the success of this administration”.
He said that 34 of at least 350 staff members of the commission in the state retired from service in 2024.
According to him, the development has placed a huge financial burden on the association, in terms of their welfare and entitlement as members.
Report says that each member received a carton of tomato paste as Christmas gift from the association. (NAN)
A chieftain of All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr Osita Okechukwu, has told the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to be thankful to God that its 16-year administration was not probed by the successive APC-led governments.Okechukwu stated this on Tuesday in Abuja, while reacting to a statement by PDP congratulating Ghanaians for the conduct of free, fair and transparent general elections.
Report says that PDP had, in a statement, said that the verdict of the people of Ghana in the presidential election was a signal to the APC that its days were numbered. The party’s National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, had said in the statement that the power of the people in Nigeria, just like in Ghana, would ‘surely prevail and end the APC’s oppressive rule’.This, he said, would “return Nigeria to the path of good governance, security, political stability and economic prosperity on the platform of the PDP in 2027.”However, in his reactions to Ologunagba’s statement, Okechukwu said that the PDP clan should thank God that former President Muhammadu Buhari and President Bola Tinubu, out of sheer statesmanship, had refused to probe ‘the 16 locus years of PDP administrations’.Okechukwu, a former Director-General of Voice of Nigeria (VON), described the 16 years of PDP administrations as ones full of squandering and lack of plan.He said that Nigeria had yet to recover from the humongous culture of impunity and trust deficit planted by PDP on the Nigerian soil.Okechukwu said corruption was among the culture of impunity, saying it governed the privatisation of Nigeria’s electricity value chain, a key element in the country’s industrialisation drive.“Another is the blatant rigging of the 2007 general elections which the foremost beneficiary, President Umaru Yar’Adua, out of good conscience and noble magnanimity, publicly acknowledged the malfeasance which characterised his victory,” he said.Okechukwu also mentioned what he called conscienceless sale of the legislative and ministerial quarters, the annual rentage of which, he said, was bleeding the country’s treasury.“Another one is the neglect of $23 billion Greenfield Refinery, which could have saved over $70 billion expended on importation of refined petroleum products and which simulated the economic hardship of today,” he said.On why, for nine years, the APC administration could not fix those challenges, he recalled the efforts made by the Buhari administration to reopen talks on the Greenfield Refinery which, according to him, the Chinese regrettably rebuffed.The former VON director-general said that Nigerians were not in a hurry to forget the deliberate breach of the rotational convention of president from the north to the south.He said that the country could not also forget the utter disregard for Section 7 of the PDP’s constitution which expressly mandated zoning.Okechukwu advised the PDP not to insult the sensibilities of Nigerians by assuming that citizens would easily forget how they were put in the harms way.He said that PDP should thank God that Buhari and Tinubu did not want to probe them, adding “that’s why Nigerians cannot decipher the difference between the two political parties.” (NAN)
Sen. Ned Nwoko (PDP-Delta) says that Local Government Administration is central to democracy in Nigeria as it ensures grassroots governance and service delivery at the local level.This is contained in a statement signed by Dr Michael Nwoko, the Chief of Staff to the lawmaker in Abuja on Monday.Nwoko said this on the occasion of the presentation of an award “Icon of Hope” to him by the Association of Local Government Vice Chairmen of Nigeria (ALGOVC).
He was represented by his Chief of Staff. He said that the importance of local government administration in the country could not be overemphasised, as it was the bedrock of democracy.According to him, local governments in Nigeria play key roles in the country’s democracy by promoting participatory democracy, providing services, and representing citizens.“Local Governments help determine local needs and how to meet them. They also act as a link between the centre, state, and local people.“They are created to decentralise power and bring the government closer to the people. They perform both mandatory and concurrent functions.“It is in view of this that I took it upon myself to enhance the viability of local governments through the Paris and London club loan refunds,”he said.Dr Folashade Olabanji-Oba, ALGOVC National Chairman, while presenting the award at its 7th Annual National Conference, said the award was in recognition of the lawmaker’s significant contributions to strengthening local government administration.She highlighted Nwoko’s critical role in ensuring the Paris and London Club loan refunds, a financial breakthrough she said enhanced the capacity of local governments nationwide.(NAN)
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