Hashim cautions Wike camp against factional convention

From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja

A presidential aspirant on the platform of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Gbenga Hashim, has cautioned the National Caretaker Committee, which is backed by the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), against holding a factional convention.

Hashim warned that holding a factional convention would exacerbate the opposition party’s divisions, pointing out that the two camps had agreed to a unity convention prior to the Court of Appeal decision.

In the aftermath of the March 9 judgment of the Court of Appeal, which nullified the last PDP convention in Ibadan, the Caretaker Committee has stepped up plans to hold a convention on March 29 and 30.

The opposition party became polarised after the Ibadan convention, which produced the Tanimu Turaki-led National Working Committee (NWC), with loyalists of the FCT Minister constituting a Caretaker Committee to manage the affairs of the party pending the conduct of their own convention.

While there have been efforts to reconcile both sides after the Court of Appeal judgment, nothing concrete has emerged from the endeavour.

Nonetheless, Hashim charged party stakeholders to return to the negotiation table and conclude work on a unified leadership structure, noting that any factional convention would ultimately produce a lose-lose outcome for the party.

According to him, the key actors in the party dispute stand the risk of losing out if they fail to resolve their differences and adhere strictly to an agreed framework for power-sharing and the harmonisation of the NWC of the rival factions.

“I urge the Wike faction not to renege on the gentleman’s agreement already made. This is about the survival and integrity of the PDP,” Hashim said.

Furthermore, the presidential hopeful warned against alleged moves to tamper with the executive committees of state chapters, particularly in Plateau, Nasarawa, Kaduna and Kano states, stating that such actions would violate the party’s constitution.

He maintained that the tenures of state executives are fixed and cannot be arbitrarily altered, cautioning against exporting the national leadership crisis into otherwise stable state structures.

Hashim identified the authentic state chairmen in the affected states as Hon. Raymond Dabo (Plateau), Hon. Adamu Ninga (Nasarawa), Hon. Edward Percy Masha (Kaduna), and Hon. Yusuf Ado Kibiya (Kano), insisting that their mandates must be respected.

He warned that imposing parallel structures in states where there are no internal disputes could deepen the crisis and weaken the party’s cohesion ahead of future elections.