The controversy surrounding the status of today’s National Executive Committee, NEC, meeting, has torn the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, apart as two factions within the party have resolved to proceed with two parallel NEC meetings, Vanguard Newspaper reports.
The decision comes amid growing tensions over party leadership and procedural disagreements with INEC.
This came as Enugu State governor, Peter Mbah, rising from a closed-door meeting with Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State; chairman of PDP Board of Trustees, Senator Adolphus Wabara; and the South East Zonal Chairman of the party, Chief Ali Odefa, among others, at the Government House, Enugu, yesterday, said he stood fully by the position of the National Working Committee, NWC, the Board of Trustees, and South East Zonal Executive Committee, ZEC, on the crisis rocking the party.
While the National Working Committee, NWC, is convening the National executive Committee, NEC, meeting, Senator Anyanwu, who was controversially reinstated by Acting National Chairman, Umar Damagum, has summoned an expanded caucus meeting.
Recall that the Acting National Chairman of the party, Amb. Umar Damagum, had reinstated Anyanwu as the party’s national secretary last week and shifted the NEC meeting scheduled for today, But the National Working Committee, NWC, and Board of Trustees, BoT, rejected this and insisted that the NEC meeting holds today.
According to a notice issued on last night by Senator Anyanwu, the meeting will involve statutory members of the National caucus, deputy national officers, members of the Board of Trustees, BoT, state chairmen, members of the National Assembly caucus, former National Working Committee, NWC, members, national ex-officio members, former governors, and immediate past gubernatorial candidates.
The notice said attendance was strictly by invitation, underscoring the urgency and exclusivity of the deliberations.
However, the expanded caucus meeting, and the 100th National Executive Committee, NEC, meeting, also scheduled for 30 June, remain mired in controversy due to internal leadership disputes and procedural irregularities flagged by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
The commission had rejected the PDP’s notification for the NEC meeting because it was signed solely by Acting National Chairman Umar Damagum, without the mandatory co-signature of the national secretary, in line with INEC’s 2022 Regulations.
The development triggered tensions within the party, with National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, insisting that INEC had no authority to interfere in the party’s internal affairs.
Damagum, however, disowned Ologunagba’s statement, describing it as unauthorized.
The crisis deepened when Damagum announced the reinstatement of Senator Anyanwu as National Secretary and postponed the NEC meeting, decisions that were swiftly rejected by 11 NWC members and the BoT.
They maintained that the NEC meeting would proceed as planned, citing the supremacy of NEC resolutions as enshrined in the PDP Constitution.
Matters took a dramatic turn when PDP staff at the national headquarters staged a walkout in protest, accusing Anyanwu of being a destabilizing force within the party.
