PDP decides on zoning, convention Tuesday

JOHN ALECHENU and OLUSOLA FABIYI

The national leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party will meet in Abuja on Monday and Tuesday where critical decisions on the future of the party are expected to be taken.

Findings by SUNDAY PUNCH in Abuja on Saturday indicated that the organs of the party expected to meet are the Expanded National Caucus, Board of Trustees and the National Executive Committee.

However, the meeting of its ENC is expected to hold on Monday night, while others will hold the following day.

The meeting is expected to be attended by former presidents and vice presidents, PDP governors, NEC members, Board of Trustees members, National Assembly members, former PDP governors, former PDP ministers and all former national officers of the party.

Their decisions after Monday’s meeting are expected to be taken to the BoT members on Tuesday for further presentation to the NEC officials for ratification.

Secretary to the party’s National Caretaker Committee, Senator Ben Obi, and a member of the BoT, who is also its secretary, Ambassador Aminu Wali, confirmed the meetings.

The three meetings are coming almost a week after the Supreme Court resolved the 14-month national leadership crisis within the party by sacking its erstwhile National Chairman, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff.

The apex court, in its judgment, upheld the decisions reached at the party’s national convention held in Port Harcourt, Rivers State on May 21, 2016, where Sheriff and other national officers of the party were removed.

The convention, thereafter, put in place a national caretaker committee, which was headed by a former Governor of Kaduna State, Senator Ahmed Makarfi.

Spokesperson for the caretaker committee, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, told our correspondent in Abuja, on Saturday, that the meetings would deliberate on when to fix a convention, where national officers were to be elected.

He, however, said he would not be able to confirm if the convention would hold in October as being speculated.

“I can’t say when the convention would hold for now. The dates and months you have been hearing are just rumours. Only the NEC can give the date, and when that is done, you will hear from us,” he said.

Adeyeye also refused to say if the party would still adhere to the zoning formula it had earlier spelt out before the crisis broke out in the party last year.

“I cannot talk on zoning for now. We need to meet and iron things out first before we begin to talk about zoning or any other thing,” the former minister of state for works told our correspondent.

Meanwhile, the Deputy Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress, Mr. Timi Frank, has urged the Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo, to direct the Chief John Odigie-Oyegun-led National Working Committee to expedite action on resolving all pending issues in the party.

Frank, in an interview with one of our correspondents, on Saturday, noted that the country’s interest should be more important than any individual’s interest in handling the internal crisis within the APC.

He described the Supreme Court judgment on the PDP’s leadership dispute as a welcome development, stressing that the situation should be seen as a wake-up call for the APC.

Frank said, “It is high time my party (APC) learnt from the PDP experience by urgently resolving all the issues at hand before it is too late.

“As we prepare for the 2019 general elections, I believe that the APC is still the best hope for Nigerians, provided we respect our own rules, resolve our internal issues and sustain our popularity.”

But the National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Mr. Bolaji Abdullahi, in a separate interview, said his party will not take any decision based on the internal affairs of the opposition.

Abdullahi said, “It is not our business what PDP does. We are not going to take our actions based on what the opposition party does.”

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Source: Punchng
PDP decides on zoning, convention Tuesday

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