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From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has said it is not within the power of the Peoples Democratic Party ( PDP), Board of Trustees ( BoT) to determine, who occupies the position of national secretary of the party.
Wike, in a letter dated October 16 and addressed to the acting BoT chairman, Adolphus Wabara, and obtained by our correspondent, Monday, urged the party organ to avoid any issue that will trigger crisis in the PDP, ahead of the November 11 governorship elections in Imo, Kogi and Bayelsa states.
Wabara had in a letter to the acting national chairman of PDP Umar Damagum, requested for the resignation of the party’s national secretary, Samuel Anyanwu. Anyanwu, who is the PDP candidate in the forthcoming Imo gubernatorial contest.
Nevertheless, the FCT minister, who is also the immediate past governor of Rivers State, stated that in the event the office of PDP national secretary becomes vacant, the entire Southern states, and not only the South East, would decide how it the position would be filled.
According to him, “the Ag. Chairman of the BoT is reminded that the issue of who occupies the position of National Secretary of the Party is beyond the BoT’s sphere of authority and Influence. Indeed, if and when a vacancy occurs, the responsibility of deciding who and how the vacancy will be filled is that of the entire Southern States to which the position was zoned and not only the South East geopolitical, as your letter under reference appears to be suggesting.’
However, when contacted for his reactions, Wabara told journalists, in a telephone interview that “if he has amended the constitution of the party, I will not know. As far as I am concerned I acted in consonance with section 47, sub-section 5 of the PDP
constitution.
“Wike is a member of the BoT. I am sure he knows the rules and the constitution of the party. But also, everybody is entitled to his opinion.”
