By Vincent Ujumadu
JUST as the various political parties were perfecting plans for their primaries later this month, PDP supporters witnessed surprised development in their party.
A group led by Chief Chukwudi Umeaba secured a court ruling sacking the leadership of Chief Ndubuisi Nwobu. Nwobu, it must be noted, had succeeded in bringing peace and uniting members of the party to the surprise of everybody.
At the time the court ruling was filtering in, the three-man ad hoc delegates congress was taking place in the 326 political wards of Anambra State.
Umeaba went on to upturn all decisions taken by Nwobu, including the results of the three-man ad hoc ward congress. Already, the two factions have started operating at different offices while waiting for the outcome of the decision of the national leadership of the party.
Umeaba said the National Executive Committee, NEC, of PDP would be contacted to fix a new date for the ward congresses as soon as possible, while his executive committee would conclude outstanding responsibilities reposed on it by NEC and work with all stakeholders to reposition the party to produce the next governor of the state.
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Going down memory lane, Umeaba said he was appointed chairman of the state caretaker committee of PDP on the 21′ of November, 2017 after the resignation of Prof. A.B.C. Nwosu who was the chairman of the party, recalling that the then secretary of NEC, Senator Ben Obi signed their appointment letters.
He said: “My committee went into action immediately by conducting ward and local government congresses, except for Awka South, Awka North and Idemili North local government areas.
“My committee could not conduct state congress because of the infraction of the delegates list which was faked, as it did not emanate from my committee which is the authentic authority that should generate the delegate list.
“Due to this generated fake list, my committee decided to write the NEC of the party on the inconclusive state congress and demanded for a new date for the exercise. In order to keep the functions of the party afloat in the state and for a proper state congress to be conducted fairly, I invoked the powers as contained in our terms of reference to suspend the exercise while awaiting the NEC’s directive.
“However, those who were not disposed to the transparency and fairness of my action quickly rushed the party to the court to vacate the decision of suspension of the state congress and even the dissolution of the caretaker committee. We decided not to be provoked, but to be law abiding and to follow the challenge and the confrontation legally and constitutionally.
“Some people who wanted to cause confusion went to Nnewi High Court, which struck out the case and allied with original judgment of an Abuja High Court in favour of the caretaker committee.
“But to put the records straight, we went back to Appeal Court in Abuja which granted all our reliefs/prayers and consequently directed the parties involved to approach the High Court for interpretation and pronouncement of the reliefs and prayers.
“The High Court judgment is very clear on who is in-charge of PDP affairs and programmes in Anambra State and that is me, Hon. Chukwudi Umeaba, the acting chairman of the caretaker committee for the party in Anambra State.
“Therefore, all hands must be on deck to meet up with the challenges ahead namely, the state congress, party primary for governorship election and other duties that may come from the NEC.”
Vanguard News Nigeria
