PDP holds crucial NEC meeting today; Wike’s group tightens grip as Damagum retains position

The Peoples Democratic party caucus meeting held at the Bauchi State Governors lodge Asokoro on Thursday have endorsed the extension of Ilya Damagun, as the party’s acting national chairman. Atiku Abubakar and Nyesom Wike, both persons of imense stake, were in attendance.

Debo Ologunagba, the national publicity secretary of the PDP, speaking after the PDP Caucus meeting, revealed that the decision was to promote reconciliation and unity within the party.

” In order to ensure focus on continuity, today’s NEC meeting will not discuss leadership changes until the upcoming national convention of the party”, he said.

He explained that the caucus had instructed the party’s leadership to establish a committee focused on discipline and reconciliation to mend relationships among all members.

“NEC meeting will not discuss any change in leaders. Rather, attention is focused on unity and reconciliation.

“Caucus agreed that all congresses in the states and local government should be concluded between June and August this year.

“Caucus agreed on the extension of the constitution review committee of the party to accept new recommendations,” Ologunagba said.

But the political intrigues over who succeeds Ayu as the next National Chairman of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), seems to have eased with the reported withdrawal of the case filed by outgoing national chairman, Iyorcha Ayu.

The notice of withdrawal of appeal tagged CA/MK/88/2024 SUIT NO: MHC/85/2023 dated April 15, made available to journalists, the Court of Appeal of Nigeria in Makurdi, Benue State capital, revealed that Ayu has withdrawn the appeal against the respondents filed on the 27th day of June 2023 via Notice of Appeal dated the 26th day of June 2023.

The lawsuit which was between Ayu (Appellant) and Terhide Utaan and the PDP as the respondent, read in part, “Take notice that the appellant herein intends and doth hereby wholly withdraw the appeal against the respondents filed on the 27th day of June 2023 vide Notice of Appeal dated the 26th day of June 2023.”

The PDP arrangement which zones it’s National Chairmanship position to the North Central has seemingly paved the way for the emergence of former Benue Governor, Gabriel Suswam, as the next PDP national Chairman following Ayu’s court withdrawal.

Should the party decides to revert to status quo, the party may prevail on current acting National Chairman, Iliya Damagun to quite, which may pave way for the emergence of Suswam, the sole contender from the North Central.

This is just as the Governors on Wednesday, said all issues around the position of the PDP national Chairman will be resolved on Thursday by the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party.

Recall that the party had been engrossed in a battle of wits between groups loyal to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, over who controls the party structures.

Report has it that while Ilya Damagun continues to enjoy the backing of the Wike group, the other group loyal to Atiku Abubakar is said to be sponsoring former Governor of Benue State, Gabriel Suswam

The decision has given the Nyesom Wike led group in the party an edge following the Caucus approval that Damagum’s stay in office continues.

Damagum who has been acting as the National Chairman, had on Wednesday, led the members of the (PDP) National Working Committee (NWC) to interact with the PDP National Ex-officio ahead of the National Executive Council Meeting, today.

On Wednesday, the PDP Governors, under the aegis of the PDP Governors Forum, also met under the leadership of Governor Bala Mohammed, of Bauchi State, at the Akwa Ibom State Governor’s Lodge in Abuja on Wednesday.

A communique at the end of the meeting said the Governors deliberated on various issues of interest and concern to the Forum and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), including review of recent developments in the Peoples Democratic Party and urged the National Working Committee of the Party to set in motion the machinery to conduct credible congresses in all the States where tenures of Party officers have expired.

The Governors declared that there are no factions in the PDP, adding that “everybody is working together”

“ We equally want to use this opportunity to reaffirm that in Rivers State, the Governors would work assiduously towards resolving all the issues in the State with a view to uniting all the Stakeholders.

Mohammed while speaking on the contentious issue of the Chairmanship of the party, stated that the NEC will resolve the issue on Thursday.

“We have been resolved all issues and we are looking forward to doing everything within the constitutional provision of the party. It is NEC that is preceding this meeting to discuss about change of leadership.

“We are talking about resolving all the issues and going forward, so that at the end of the day, the timeliness allowed in the constitution for Congresses and what have you, would have been done. But certainly the public are free to permutate, to discuss and off course NEC will decide on some of these issues.

“There is no any contending forces, who is NEC, NEC is the PDP Governors Forum and other stakeholders, so we are just a portion of NEC, we cannot talk on behalf of NEC until we get there.

He insisted that the NEC will take decisions on such issues and not the Governors.

“ I know the Governors normally takes leadership position, but we have an acting person in leadership capacity leading the party and NEC will decide weather it is time to fill the vacancy looking at the legal implications of doing that, knowing that they are so many lingering litigations in court and of course we don’t want to disparage ourselves, because we know that there are some marauders hiding somewhere trying to factionalize our party and take one faction to go and do coalition.

“ We are not going to allow that as governors. We are very responsible and we are very credible and we make sure we are resolve all the issues and unify the party for maximum efficiency and success in the next election”