…Offers pathway to peace, unity, stability

•Mbah: South-East must stand together

•Wabara: We’ve been trampled upon too many times

•Udenwa: We don’t want to be taken for granted any longer

•Secretariat staff, management decry crisis, support governors’ position

The crisis plaguing the opposition Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) got messier Wednesday, as the South-east caucus of the party threatened to quit en masse if its nominee, Hon. Sunday Udeh-Okoye, was not returned as PDP National Secretary.

That was as the management and staff of the PDP national secretariat expressed concern over the state of the party, lamenting that in the last one year, the party has been engulfed in a disturbing leadership crisis, particularly, over the office of National Secretary.

Speaking on the plight of the South-east in PDP, Enugu State Governor and leader of the PDP in the zone, Dr. Peter Mbah, said it was time for the zone to speak with one voice.

Chairman of PDP Board of Trustees (BoT), Senator Adolphus Wabara, and former governor of Imo State, Chief Achike Udenwa, also expressed anger over what they described as the party’s disrespect for the region.

The geopolitical zone vented its displeasure in a communique read by the zonal chairman, Chief Ali Odefa, at the end of a meeting of the South East Zonal Executive, at Government House, Enugu.

It said the meeting was convened to nominate a candidate to complete the remaining term in the position of National Secretary in line with the directive of the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) during its 600th meeting in Abuja.

Odefa said, “The South East ZEC exhaustively deliberated on the directive of the NWC and came to the conclusion that it offered a sure pathway to peace, unity, stability, and progress of our party.

“Consequently, the ZEC unanimously recommended Hon. Sunday Udeh-Okoye as the candidate to complete the term of office of the National Secretary.”

The South East PDP regretted that it had to go through the process of nominating Udeh-Okoye several times since October 2023. It urged the NWC to not only immediately ratify his nomination, but also ensure that Arch. Setonji Koshoedo effectively occupied the office of National Secretary in acting capacity pending Udeh-Okoye’s ratification by the PDP National Executive Committee (NEC).

The South East PDP threatened to review its membership of the party should its position suffer further delay, despite its age long loyalty to PDP.

The communique said, “The South East has consistently served as a stronghold of the PDP from inception. In PDP’s near three-decade existence, we have given our loyalty and all to the party.

“Currently, while the party has been losing key members post-2023 general election, the South East PDP is at the vanguard of strengthening the party by rallying major opposition figures such as in Enugu, where the Labour Party, LP, gubernatorial candidate, two LP House of Representatives members, numerous members of the House of Assembly, among other stalwarts into the PDP fold.

“Therefore, we hope that this time around, the position of the South East PDP regarding the Office of the National Secretary is accorded the honour and immediacy it deserves. This would bring to a closure the needless lingering dispute over the matter.

“However, in the event that our position is not promptly implemented by the party, the South East PDP, as a family, will be compelled to reconsider our relationship with the PDP going forward.”

Wabara said it was in order to review the region’s relationship with the party should what he described as trampling on the zone by the party persist.

He stated, “We have been trampled upon, not taken seriously. If such a position were vacant in the South-south, it would not be like this. And now, it came to us. I mean, the usual thing is to play politics with the Igbo man. Yes, we may have to reconsider our stand as far as the party is concerned. But I trust the NWC.”

Udenwa also said, “We are expecting that this issue will be finally ironed out once and for all. We do not want to be taken for granted by anybody again.”

Meanwhile, staff of the PDP national secretariat in Abuja called on the acting National Chairman, Amb. Umar Iliya Damagum, to take all necessary steps to ensure that the NEC meeting held as scheduled, on May 27, to enable the party address pertinent issues and reassert its values of unity, discipline, loyalty and strict adherence to the provisions of the party’s constitution.

The management and staff said they supported Koshoedo as acting national secretary of the party, and commended the BoT, NWC, the governors’ forum, and other stakeholders.

They also pledged their continued loyalty and commitment to PDP.

The management and staff said, in a joint statement, “After a thorough consideration, the management and staff of the PDP national secretariat unanimously align with and declare unalloyed loyalty to the recommendation of the PDP Governor’s Forum as adopted by the NWC in recognising and working with Arch Setonji Koshoedo as the Acting National Secretary of our party in line with the provisions of the PDP Constitution.

“This recommendation, which is in consonant with Section 36 (2) of the PDP Constitution was duly adopted by the NWC in its 600th meeting held on April 29, 2025 wherein in exercise of its powers under Section 29 (2)(b) of the PDP Constitution directed the Deputy National Secretary, Arch Setonji Koshoedo, to act as the National Secretary pending the emergence of a substantive National Secretary.

“We believe that the NWC’s directive that Arch Setonji Koshoedo acts as National Secretary is in the overall interest of the stability of our party, being the best step at the moment to restore the confidence of members of the party and preserve the integrity of our internal affairs

“Moreover, we are aware that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has received and acknowledged Arch Setonji Koshoedo as the Acting National Secretary of the PDP.

“We are also aware that INEC is receiving and attending to correspondences of our party signed by Arch Setonji Koshoedo, contrary to false narratives by certain quarters.

“As staff of the PDP, we fully recognise and appreciate the roles and contributions Senator Anyanwu has played and made for the growth and success of the party, especially issues regarding staff welfare, but at this moment we strongly believe that there is no sacrifice too high for any individual to make for the overall interest of our party.

“The PDP gave him the platform from which he rose from local government chairman, to senator and also elected as the National Secretary of our party.”

The management and staff said the leadership dispute was worsened by protracted litigations, violent disruption of activities at the party secretariat, and damaging media narratives, which posed serious threat to the stability and survival of PDP as well as the credibility of its internal processes.

They said in the statement that staff of the national secretariat were among the key stakeholders in the affairs of the party because many of them had spent 20 to 25 years of their working lives striving to establish and grow the bureaucracy of the party and were bestowed with rich institutional memory regarding the party.

They said they were desirous and concerned about getting the problems solved without further delay.

Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says it has yet to make any decision regarding the national chairman and national secretary crisis rocking Labour Party (LP).

The commission made the clarification in a statement by the Chief Press Secretary to INEC Chairman, Rotimi Oyekanmi, on Thursday in Abuja.

Oyekanmi also said that it had yet to take any decision on the national secretary of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

The commission faulted some media reports which claimed that INEC had recognised the embattled national chairman of LP, Julius Abure as well as Senator Samuel Anyanwu as the national secretary of the PDP.

Oyekanmi said the reports were false and misleading.

“Our attention has been drawn to some media reports claiming that the commission has recognised certain persons as the national chairman and national secretary of LP.

“The reports also inferred that the commission has restored a particular individual as the national secretary of PDP, referring to the listings on the commission’s official website.

“However, the reports are false and misleading. The commission has not made any decision in respect of either the LP or PDP,” he said.

Oyekanmi said that the names of the national officers of LP had previously been uploaded to INEC website, following a court order, not related in any way to the latest judgement of the Supreme Court.

“In the same manner, the name of the national secretary of PDP on the same website was neither deleted nor reinstated.

“As a law abiding institution, the commission is carefully studying the judgment of the Supreme Court on the LP and will communicate its decision to the public in due course,” Oyekanmi said.

AS the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) prepares for its much-anticipated national convention in Kano, party elders and stakeholders are urging politicians who are planning to defect to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to do so without delay.

Top sources within the PDP told the Sunday Tribune that the leadership of the party would prefer a “clean slate” ahead of the convention, especially in light of recent high-profile defections and ongoing speculation about others who may soon follow suit.

The concern, Insiders say, is that those who are not committed to the party’s future should not be allowed to influence the process of electing a new national executive.

“Whoever wants to leave should leave now because we don’t want them to have any input in the leadership. They can even mislead us anyway,” said a founding member of the party, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

“We want a new leadership that is not tied to the ambitions or manipulations of those planning to betray the party.”

The warning comes amid deepening internal tensions over the defection of Delta State Governor Sheriff Oborevwori to the APC – an exit the PDP has chosen to downplay publicly, despite the signal it sends about waning influence in some quarters.

While more defections are rumoured to be imminent – including among lawmakers and former officeholders—PDP stakeholders insist that numbers alone do not guarantee political success.

“In 2015, we had the majority of state governors and still lost the presidential election,” one senior official remarked.

According to him, what Nigeria needs is not a dominant one-party state but a truly competitive democracy.

“The number of governors is immaterial. What matters is preserving multiparty democracy. We may be in trouble now, but should we give in to dictatorship? No. Democracy is worth fighting for.”

The party’s upcoming convention is seen as a crucial moment in repositioning the PDP ahead of the 2027 general elections.

Insiders say the goal is to elect a credible, reform-minded national leadership that will reconnect with the grassroots and rebuild public trust.

Despite setbacks, PDP leaders remain defiant in the face of APC’s growing dominance, which has been aided by a wave of defections and political realignments since President Bola Tinubu assumed office in 2023. However, many within the party argue that a house purged of fair-weather allies is better equipped to recover and offer a viable alternative in the next electoral cycle.

As one party elder put it, “It’s better we face our storm now than later. Those who want to leave should leave. Those who stay must be ready to rebuild.”

Following the recent Delta stakeholders defection to the APC, PDP had declared its intention to challenge in court what it described as the trading away of its electoral mandates in the state.

This was part of the resolutions reached at a meeting of the party’s National Working Committee (NWC), presided over by the acting National Chairman, Ambassador Iliya Damagum, at the PDP national secretariat in Abuja last week.

The party leadership condemned the mass defections as a betrayal of the people’s mandate and vowed to initiate legal and political steps to reclaim its lost ground.

In a decisive move to reassert control over its Delta structure, the NWC had directed the South-South Zonal Caretaker Committee, led by Chief Emma Ogidi, to immediately take charge of the party’s affairs in the state.

The zonal body was instructed to relocate temporarily to Delta State, take inventory of party assets, and ensure continuity of PDP operations pending the appointment of a full caretaker committee.

Sunday Tribune