PDP crisis deepens as court orders investigation into alleged forgery of primary election guidelines

.. Okechukwu says trust deficit in PDP lubricating defection to APC

 

COSMAS CHUKWU, ENUGU

 

 

The internal crisis within the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has deepened as a Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Magistrate Court has directed the FCT Police Command to investigate allegations of forgery involving the party’s primary election guidelines.

 

The order was issued by Magistrate Fatima I. Bukar, prompting law enforcement to interrogate key PDP officials.

 

Among those questioned were the National Vice Chairman (South-East), Ali Odefa, and factional National Secretary, Chief Sunday Ude-Okoye, along with several staff members from the party’s national secretariat.

 

Additionally, the official printers of the PDP, Abiodun Olu Printers Limited, were summoned but requested additional time, citing their absence from town.

 

The court’s directive was based on a petition filed by PDP chieftain, Mike Iheanaetu, who alleged that documents presented in legal proceedings that upheld Ude-Okoye as National Secretary were falsified.

 

The Principal Registrar of the Abuja Magistrate Court, Yusuf Tambaya, formally notified the Deputy Commissioner of Police, instructing a thorough investigation and a report within two weeks.

 

If a prima facie case is established, the court ordered that the defendants be charged accordingly.

 

Iheanaetu’s petition asserts that the original primary election guidelines were signed on February 17, 2022, by former National Chairman Dr. Iyochia Ayu and National Secretary, Senator Samuel Anyanwu.

 

However, the alleged forged documents lacked a date and signatures.

 

The petition further argues that Section 47(5) of the PDP Constitution does not mandate party officials to resign before contesting public elections.

 

Conversely, the disputed guidelines state that any political appointee must resign before purchasing Expression of Interest (EOI) and nomination forms, citing Section 84(12) of the Electoral Act 2022.

 

It also allegedly misinterprets Section 47(5) of the PDP Constitution, requiring party executives seeking elective office to resign seven days before obtaining EOI forms.

 

Iheanaetu’s legal representative, Kalu Kalu, has urged the court to issue a criminal summons against those involved, arguing that the forged guidelines have exacerbated divisions within the party. He maintains that his client has suffered significant harm due to their use.

 

In response, the FCT Police Command summoned the implicated PDP officials, who provided statements regarding their knowledge of the matter. Investigators have also requested the party’s official printers to present original versions of the guidelines to verify discrepancies.

 

Meanwhile, tensions within the PDP have extended to the South-South region, where the Zonal Executive Committee has suspended its Zonal Secretary, Chief Felix Omemu, for one month.

 

The suspension follows accusations of misconduct and unauthorized public statements discrediting a zonal executive meeting held in Benin City, Edo State.

 

Omemu had previously issued a statement from Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, challenging the legitimacy of the meeting convened by National Vice Chairman (South-south), Chief Dan Orbih.

 

He contended that such a gathering required approval from the Zonal Working Committee, which he claimed had not sanctioned the meeting.

 

At the Benin meeting, a motion for Omemu’s suspension was introduced by factional Rivers State House of Assembly Speaker, Martin Chike Amaewhule, and seconded by Hon. Godwin Offiono, a member of the House of Representatives. Amaewhule accused Omemu of breaching trust and inciting division within the party.

 

Following the suspension, PDP Zonal Legal Adviser George Turnah was appointed as Acting Zonal Secretary. Chief Dan Orbih praised the decision, emphasizing the need to restore order and discipline within the party’s leadership.

 

The South-South Zonal Executive Committee meeting saw attendance from federal lawmakers representing the region, with the exception of Akwa Ibom State representatives.

 

.. Okechukwu says trust deficit in PDP lubricating defection to APC

 

However, A foundation member of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr Osita Okechukwu, says years of trust deficit in Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) simulated defection of members to APC in droves.

 

Okechukwu, a former Director-General of Voice of Nigeria, said this in a statement he issued on Sunday in Enugu while reacting to the position of Sen. Aminu Tambuwal that “no one with conscience will join the APC”.

 

He noted that Tambuwal could not truly talk of conscience when he connived to wreck the PDP; “hence it is the trust deficit of his party’s leadership which caused massive defectors from PDP to APC.”

 

It could be recalled that Sen. Aminu Tambuwal, the former Governor of Sokoto State, at the recent North West Zonal meeting of the PDP, had expressed disappointment over the recent wave of defections by members of the PDP to the ruling APC.

 

Tambuwal was quoted as saying that, “I believe that no one with a conscience will join the APC.

 

“People leave parties for different reasons, but what I have been observing in recent times are defections not based on the interest of the people but on stomach infrastructure.”

 

Okechukwu replying noted that the wave of the defections “is basically the outcome of erroneous breach of the rotation convention of President and Section 7 of the PDP’s Constitution of which Tambuwal was one of the masterminds.”

 

“One cannot fathom how my friend Sen. Tambuwal didn’t rate the breach of the rotation convention.

 

“Especially, against his erstwhile bosom friend Nyesom Wike, Minister of FCT; who backed him in 2018 presidential primary when no aspirant of southern extraction in the PDP contested in obedience to the rotation convention as unconscionable?

 

“This is the offshoot of Wike Masquerade raging,” the APC chieftain said.

 

He reminded Tambuwal and his cohorts that some patriotic members of the PDP are defecting because the party had been demobilised, irretrievably wrecked and rendered ineffective to play its traditional role of main opposition party.

On the impending coalition or merger which would likely dislodge the APC in 2027 Presidential Election, Okechukwu replied that the greed in the party would not allow them to forge solid merger.

 

He said they (PDP) had already started cooking up awkward permutation of South 17 and North 11 years in Aso Villa, just to rupture again the rotation convention, “as if Nigeria got independence in 1999.”

“Tambuwal and cohorts act as if they have 100 per cent votes of the North in their pockets and albeit the Northern electorates are quarantined in a dormitory to be hauled to the polling booth on Election Day.

 

“Their masterminds always forget that the Northern electorates are one of the most sophisticated in the country and cannot be toyed with.

 

“Or do they think that the southeastern electorates that put all their eggs in one PDP’s electoral basket, even when APC presented Rt. Honourables Chuba Okadigbo and Edwin Umezoke in 2003 and 2007 as Vice Presidents respectively are amnesia stricken?

 

“The defection is not about stomach infrastructure, it is about PDP’s leadership trust deficit.” Okechukwu added.