Imo PDP crisis heightens as members protest over Atiku’s campaign council list

The crisis rocking the Imo state chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) heightened on Tuesday as some members continued protest over alleged exclusion from the party’s presidential campaign council list.

Supporters of Samuel Anyanwu, national secretary of the party, were said to have clashed with supporters of Emeka Ihedioha, former deputy speaker of the house of representatives.

The crisis, which was said to have started some weeks earlier, degenerated to a full-blown fracas on Sunday during a stakeholders’ meeting at the party secretariat in Owerri, the state capital.

The former deputy speaker was reported to have announced himself as the chairman of the Atiku Abubakar campaign council in the state, while his former deputy, Gerald Irona, would serve as the deputy chairman of the council.

But some stakeholders were said to have countered Ihedioha that as a governorship aspirant, he cannot serve as the chairman of the presidential campaign council as, saying it was against the party constitution.

Some stakeholders in the state chapter of the PDP were said to have staged a walk-out from the meeting.

This development comes amid the crisis rocking the party at the national stage. Nyesom Wike, governor of Rivers, and the governors of Benue, Oyo, Enugu and Abia had said Iyorchia Ayu, the national chairman, must resign.

The governors are insisting that it is not right for the national chairman of the party to come from the same region as the presidential candidate.