Leaders of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), have provided a soft landing opportunity for the embattled National Chairman of the party, Uche Secondus, fixing its national convention to hold in October this year.

Rising from a crucial meeting that lasted several hours at the party’s Wadata House headquarters in Abuja today, August 10, the leaders and stakeholders, including governors, former governors, serving and former National Assembly members, among others, requested the National Executive Committee (NEC) to constitute a committee to zone national elective and party positions.

Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State and chairman of the PDP Governors Forum, who read a communique at the end of the meeting, reiterated the need for unity in the party in order to offer a ready platform as an alternative to “the failed All Progressives Congress, APC administration

Full text of the communique is reproduced here:

The PDP Stakeholders held a meeting on Tuesday 10th August, 2021, at Wadata Plaza,, Abuja on the recent developments in the PDP.

2. There were extensive consultations with all major stakeholders in the Party including the Governors,  members of the Board of Trustees, former Presiding Officers and current Principal officers and Leaders from the National Assembly, former Governors,  former Ministers,  and indeed other leaders of the Party  with a view to bringing all tendencies within the Party together in view of the urgent task facing the Party as the only viable vehicle to checkmate the  abysmally poor governance of the APC led Federal Government.
3. The meeting deliberated extensively on the issues thrown up and resolved as follows:
4. That the Constitution, traditions and practices of the Party should be strictly adhered to in finding solutions to any problems.
5. That all parties should sheath their sword in the greater interest of the PDP and the need to RESCUE Nigeria from the avoidable National malaise and drift occasioned by the APC administration.
6. That all processes leading to an early National Convention in October be immediately activated by relevant Party organs, especially National Executive Committee (NEC).
7. That the Party should redouble efforts to provide a credible alternative leadership for Nigeria as it still remains the only hope for the Nigerian people for good governance.
8. The meeting requested the NEC to immediately constitute a Zoning Committee for Party Offices and another Committee for National Elective Offices.
9. The meeting expressed appreciation to Party elders for their commitment and wisdom in handling Party affairs.
10. We shall overcome and restore peace, security and development once again to Nigeria.

The national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Uche Secondus, has described those who stormed the party’s secretariat in Abuja, calling for his resignation as “a tiny minority.”

The protesters had besieged the PDP secretariat at Wadata Plaza, Abuja, to pass a vote of no confidence on Secondus and demand his resignation on the grounds of poor performance.

The party member who led the protest, one Tamunotonye Inioribo, said that members and leaders cannot continue to watch one individual destroy what so many Nigerians sacrificed to build.

“Under his watch, so many of our leaders from the north to the south are leaving this party. We  have lost governors, National Assembly members, BoT members and ordinary members. If Secondus remains we may be left with nobody else by 2023.”

Responding through his Special Assistant on Media, Ike Abonyi, today, August 9, Secondus vowed not to yield to the protesters’ demand.

“…nothing so far warrants his resignation from the party position and those tiny minority calling for his resignation should come clean and tell party members across the country his offense and why he should resign.”

said Abonyi said that Secondus, “will remain focused and committed to the ideals of the party which he swore to protect and defend upon his election to lead this great party 44 months ago.”

The calls for the PDP chairman’s resignation came about a week after some members of the party’s National Executive Council reportedly resigned their positions.

The party had some months ago lost three of its governors –  David Umah of Ebonyi, Ben Ayade of Cross River and Bello Matawalle of Zamfara – to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

A former governor of Bayelsa State, Seriake Dickson, has said that the meeting of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that asked the party’s national chairman, Uche Secondus to resign was illegal and cannot hold water.

In a statement today, August 9, Dickson insisted that Secondus will remain as chairman of the party, saying that the “purported National Working Committee” meeting that decided his fate was held outside the constitution of the party and was convened in a hotel room without the knowledge, consent and presence of the chairman.

“I want to draw the attention of PDP leaders, members and Nigerians at large that the meeting was the action of a few party officers and does not represent a valid resolution or decision of the National Working Committee known to the PDP constitution.”

“By the PDP constitution, only the national chairman of the party can summon and preside over meetings of the organs of the party especially the NWC of which he is chairman. So the purported meeting and the outcome therefore are part of the plot to contrive a needless crisis in the PDP.”

“It is part of the scheme to call a dog a bad name to hang it. The general public should note that the statement signed by some members: 3 members of the working committee and 3 Vice chairmen of the party (as indicated in the press release) does not constitute a valid resolution of the National Working Committee.”

“By the way, the NWC has 19 members and only 6 of them signed the statement leaving out the majority of 13 who were not at the meeting and the chairman who was not aware, who did not attend, who did not authorize and who did not preside over the said meeting and therefore it is not only a nullity but an act of gross misconduct.”

“It is all an effort to contrive a crises in the party to further the ulterior objective of those who are funding it, the intent of which is to cause a major crisis in the PDP.”

“Secondly, my attention was also drawn to a purported statement by the Reps Caucus. As Nigerians and all PDP leaders know, the minority leader of the Reps is Honorable Ndudi Elumelu not Hon Kingsley Chinda, and members of the House of Representatives caucus have already spoken that they did not hold any such meeting and the Chairman of the caucus Hon Ndudi Elumelu has rightly issued a statement which is in the public domain that he did not summon or preside over such a meeting.”

“Therefore, Nigerians should disregard the reported decision of the purported rep caucus meeting.
“All this is to create a media frenzy backed up by the sponsored demonstrations at the party secretariat on Monday which are designed to force the chairman to resign in order to set up a caretaker committee which is illegal. Happily the National Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus has issued a statement a short while ago that he will not resign. I support this decision fully as it is backed by the PDP constitution.

“Let me also bring to the attention of all that by the PDP constitution, a vote of no confidence even by a duly constituted NWC or other organs of the party does not remove a Chairman. The chairman is voted for and can only be removed by the National Convention unless on his own volition, he chooses to resign.

“So I call on all leaders of the party that this is perhaps their last effort to save the PDP. Like me, most of us have paid dearly and have paid our dues since 2015 when we lost the Presidential elections and like me, we should all not rest on our oars or leave any stone unturned in the bid to strengthen and reposition the party including calling people to order and standing up against illegality when we have to.

“There is no crisis in the party. What is happening is only a contrived media crisis orchestrated and funded by some people with a motive to hijack the party without subjecting themselves and their cronies to a democratic vote at the convention which is due in less than 4 months.

“This has nothing to do with Secondus performance but a coup against a major democratic institution in Nigeria and must be resisted and stopped by all lovers of democracy and all men of good conscience in Nigeria.

“The decamping of Governors and other leaders is not the fault of Secondus. It happens from time to time in all political parties from 1999 till date. The PDP has received Governors, presiding officers of the National Assembly and other political leaders under secondus and will continue to do so after this crisis. It is these people orchestrating these crisis that have made governors and other leaders to leave the party because of the needless crisis and the toxic political atmosphere created by them within the party.

“Since we lost the 2015 elections, secondus has labored to keep the party in spite of harassment, campaigned round to support candidates without the so called ‘taxation’ which has been put to an end in the party. He is one of the most experienced political party administrators in the party and in the country right from his days as NPN youth leader till date. He has seen it all and done it all. The whole issue is that Secondus insists that party decisions should be taken by all stakeholders and not by a few especially decisions about the direction of the party in 2023.

“I call on the National Chairman to utilize all options and powers available to him under the constitution and to take steps to ensure that no officer or member no matter how highly placed usurps, or impedes the exercise of his rights, powers and duties as national chairman or is allowed to plunge the party into another needless crisis.”

Secondus has been under serious pressure recently to resign as chairman of the party over accusations of mismanagement and fraud.