Minority Leadership crisis: Disagreement as PDP BoT considers committee report

Thursday, September 19, 2019 10:52 pm

Ndudi Elumelu

The House of Representatives Minority Leadership crisis rocking the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) appears to be taking a new dimension as Board of Trustees (BoT) seems not to be united over the matter.

The PDP in July suspended Rep. Ndudi Elumelu and six other lawmakers over the role they played in the emergence of Elumelu as the Minority Leader of the House of Representatives against the wish of the party.

The action made the party’s BoT to set up a five-member committee to investigate the matter.

News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the BoT on Thursday met at the party Secretariat to discuss the report of its committee set up to investigate the matter.

The board Chairman, Sen. Walid Jubrin, addressing newsmen after the Board meeting said that the committee report was still in consideration.

Jubrin said that the report had yet to be submitted to the party’s National Working Committee saying, “We are not going to say anything until the report is finalised.”

He said that the report was an internal matter of the party and it would be resolved internally.

Jubrin disclosed that as part of the board’s consultation with party leaders, the board met with the former Vice President and PDP Presidential Candidate in the February election, Atiku Abubakar, in Dubai.

He said that the board was in support of the party to appeal the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal judgment at the Supreme court, hoping that justice would be delivered.

He commended PDP members and urged them to remain calm, resolute and not to cause any crisis.

Speaking on the development within the party in Kogi and Bayelsa after the Sept. 3 primaries, Jubrin urged all aspirants to give peace a chance.

He advised all contestants to be calm and the aggrieved to follow internal mechanism of the party to express their grievances and remember that party was bigger than individual.

However, in contrast to Jubrin’s position, the Board Secretary, Adolphus Wabara, at the news conference said that the report had been concluded and submitted to PDP national chairman, Mr Uche Secondus.

“Don’t forget that the National chairman is also a member of the BoT. We have considered the report and handed it over to the National Working Committee (NWC),” Wabara said.

While the board meeting was still ongoing, the party had earlier issued a statement that it had yet to receive any report from the committee and yet to take any position on the matter