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From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
Sixty members of the House of Representatives elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party ( PDP), on Monday, threatened to withdraw from the opposition party over alleged plot by the National Working Committee ( NWC) to impose caretaker committees in the Rivers, as well as 10 other state chapters of the party.
The lawmakers, on the aegis of a coalition of opposition lawmakers, at a press briefing, in Abuja, accused the Umar Damagum-led PDP National Working Committee ( NWC) of an alleged plot to members of the All Progressives Congress ( APC) as caretaker committee members in the affected states.
The coalition, at briefing addressed by its spokesman, Ikenga Ugochinyere, demanded the immediate residence of Damagum as acting national chairman of the PDP, and his replacement by someone from the North Central.
He said:” Gentlemen, many of you may have heard rumours about ongoing events in my party, our party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) where there have been allegations of doctoring of Caretaker Committee members lists in Rivers state and at least 10 other states.
” This story is quite unfortunate and I can confirm to you all that it is not a rumour but fact. We have obtained very credible intelligence on the on goings in the Party’s Wadata House National Secretariat and it does not sound right at all. We currently have in the PDP a national leadership that is in bed with the APC and is working extremely hard to hand over the party to the APC.
“Following the removal of Sen. Iyorchia Ayu as national chairman of our party and assumption of office by Umar Illiya Damagun, who was elected as Deputy National Chairman to act in his stead, the party has only known misfortune and abdicated its responsibility as the leading opposition party in the country.”
Ugochinyere, who was flanked by Aliyu Mustapha, Awaji-Inombek Abiante (Rivers), Midala Balami (Borno) amongst others explained that “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 leader 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 list of a majority of caretaker committees populated by APC agents masquerading as PDP members.
“However, despite that decision to retain everybody, Mr 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.”
