•PDP logo and FCT Minister Wike
Ahead of its National Convention scheduled for November 15 and 16 in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday told a former Governor of Rivers State and Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, that nobody can give the party condition.
Recall that Wike had recently during a media chat in Abuja threatened that though the crisis in PDP was over for now, another set of crisis will resume if the party fails to recognise the zonal congress that produced Chief Dan Orbih as the party’s national vice chairman, South-South, reports Daily Independent.
Wike had added that unless his condition was met, there will be another round of crisis, adding, “They said that they are going for their convention in November. I am not part of it until they have corrected it. Let us wait, there is still time for them to resolve it. Before you talk about convention, resolve the matter. If the matter is not resolved, there will be crisis.”
Responding to these threat during an interactive session with the media, the National Publicity Secretary, Hon. Debo Ologunagba, said, “PDP has not, and will not even take condition from anybody, who will follow that constitution anyway. We have a South-South Zonal Caretaker Committee and they’ve been functioning as such.”
The party told its members that PDP demands 100 percent loyalty from its members, warning that if anybody contravenes or disobeys, the party will have no other option than to use its constitution.
The party said: “Loyalty is a personal thing and when you’re in a party like this, we have said we demand it. If at any point we find out that you don’t give it, the constitution will kick in. I addressed that earlier.
“We demand 100% loyalty from our members. We have issued that statement. That statement is working. That’s our position today.”
On the issue where the minister alleged that the party or PDP governors went to court to demand a reversal of state of emergency imposed on Rivers State but did not follow up the matter, Ologunagba said, “If a case is filed, there are processes. I’m a lawyer. There will be hearing notices. I am not in that case. I do know the governors of the party that filed the case. The question that should be asked is that has it been listed by the Supreme Court? If it’s been listed, then we’ll have a hearing notice. Hearing notice, I’m not aware of.”
He further said: “Again, let me tell you something. You see, being loud is not a substitute for being well informed.”
Ologunagba, however, said that the party at the moment is focusing on its scheduled national convention in Ibadan.
He emphasised the party’s position on the lawmakers, who defected to APC, saying, “One of the decisions that we took as a party was, we directed the legal adviser to take steps to retrieve those positions, because constitutionally they’ve lost it by reason of their defection when there’s no division in our party.”
