60 reps accuse acting PDP chair of anti-party activities, ask him to resign

Some members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the house of representatives have asked Umar Damagum, acting chairman of the party, to tender his resignation.

The lawmakers made the demand during a press conference in Abuja on Thursday. They accused Damagum of anti-party activities.

The PDP currently holds over 100 members in the house of representatives.

The legislators accused Damagum of allegedly masterminding the “doctoring” of caretaker committee members lists in Rivers and 10 other states.

“We currently have in the PDP a national leadership that is in bed with the All Progressives Congress (APC) and is working extremely hard to hand over the party to the APC,” Ikenga Ugochinyere, who represents Ideato federal constituency, said on behalf of his colleagues.

The lawmakers said since the removal of Iyorchia Ayu as the national chair of the PDP, the party has only known “misfortune” and has “abdicated its responsibility” as the leading opposition party in the country.

“That role which Nigerians would have loved the PDP to play as an institution it truly is has been abdicated for a plate of porridge,” the lawmakers said.

“A serious leadership would have set up structures to review what, why, and how the party failed to win the last presidential election and also failed to secure a majority in both chambers of the national assembly.

“Rather, the Umar Damagum-led NWC is assiduously working to hand over the party to the ruling APC and their agents.

“A serious leadership would have looked into the acts of open anti-party activities, established why they happened and set up measures to ensure that it never happened again in the party.

“A serious party leadership would have since the end of elections or even the tribunal matters gone around to thank members and rally them for the challenge ahead of being the opposition and offering a credible alternative to the people. We do not have any of these. But again imagine if we had such with the current state of the nation.”

‘NORTH-CENTRAL SHOULD PRODUCE PDP CHAIRMAN’

The lawmakers said Damagum should resign to allow a member of the party from the north-central geopolitical zone to complete the tenure of Ayu who is from Benue.

The legislature said Damagum was only told to step in, hold the fort and “midwife the process through which the north-central would present another person who would complete the slot of the zone”.

“Not only did Damagun hold tight unto the seat for well over a year now, but he has also abdicated every responsibility of the office of the chairman of PDP and is very comfortable serving APC interests,” they added.

“There had been agreement of a broad spectrum of the party leadership when it became clear that Damagum was not interested in conducting elections but to appoint caretaker committees in at least 19 states where the tenures of the state and local government leaders were expiring to extend the tenures of these officials by three months.

“This decision which was made to cover every state was the wisdom that restrained Damagum from announcing a wholesale list of a majority of caretaker committees populated by APC agents masquerading as PDP members.

“However, despite that decision to retain everybody, Damagun went ahead and received a list of APC agents and announced them as members and leaders of the PDP local government caretaker committees wholesomely in Rivers state and partially in at least 10 other states.

“This is a direct attempt to kill the PDP and ensure it goes into extinction. To make issues clearer, we are speaking on behalf of at least 60 lawmakers in the opposition lawmakers’ coalition in the national assembly. We all won our elections without any form of help or support from the party hierarchy.

“It has become clearer to us that this scenario was foisted so that as many of us as possible would fail the elections. Damagum never really wanted us to win.”

‘WE’LL RESIGN IF OUR DEMAND ISN’T MET’

The lawmakers said if the list in Rivers state PDP caretaker committee and the other 10 states stands, they will resign from the party, “sever all relationship with the party and seek new political alliances elsewhere”.

“Some leaders may not boldly speak out, but as you all know, we won our elections by scoring victory against the devil himself. So we can speak out,” the legislators said.

“Let us sound this note of warning to all in PDP who are part of the leadership of the party at whatever level, that this PDP local government leadership will mark the end of the party if Damagum tampers with the original agreed list of caretaker committee members for Rivers state and the other 10 states.

“What Damagun is doing to PDP is worse than what Ali Modu Sherriff did or intended to do. Presently, in all the states where PDP is not the Governor, Damagum has already concluded arrangements to hand the party’s leadership to the APC.

“Not being satisfied, he now wants to hand over strategic states including Rivers state as well. It is our call on Umar Iliya Damagum to immediately resign so that the party can midwife a process and hand over to someone from the north-central in line with the provisions of our great party.”

The development comes amid the political crisis in Rivers state.

Nyesom Wike, the immediate past governor of Rivers, and Siminalayi Fubara, his successor, have been embroiled in a struggle for the control of Rivers’ political structure.