PDP calls for calm as seven NWC members resign

Seven members of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) have resigned.

The party’s National Organising Secretary, Colonel Austin Akobundu (retd), confirmed the development on Tuesday.

It was gathered those who resigned include: the Deputy National Financial Secretary, Deputy Legal Adviser, Deputy National Auditor, Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Deputy Women Leader, and Deputy Organising Secretary.

The Nation could not confirm the seventh officer at the time of filing this report.

They promised to remain loyal to the PDP but said they will not be able to work with the current National Working Committee (NWC).

They resigned while the emergency NWC of the party was ongoing.

National Youth Leader of the party, Sunday Ude-Okoye, who confirmed their resignations to reporters, called on the national chairman, Prince Uche Secondus to step aside.

Due-Okoye accused the party chair of crippling many departments and units in the secretariat.

Saying the party chair had nothing to offer the PDP, Ude-Okoye said more members of the NWC were also aggrieved by Secondus’ leadership style.

He threatened to resign if the party chairman failed to heed the call to resign.

He said: “Today, I have asked him (Secondus) in our NWC meeting to resign his position as the chairman of this party because he cannot lead this party to victory.

“I am also asking the leaders, the governors, the founding fathers, the youth, the women to rise up to rescue our party.

“I am here to make it very clear to all Nigerians that if Secondus does not resign from the party, I am going to leave the party for him.

“The governors, if they don’t wade into this matter right now, I assure Nigerians that within the next three, four days, my (resignation) letter will be made public.

“Seven deputies have already resigned their positions today because of Secondus. Many more people are also going to resign in the NWC because of Secondus.

“Right now, I can tell you that not less than eight to ten persons within the NWC members are very aggrieved with Secondus."

The visibly enraged Youth Leader did not rule out the possibility of impeaching the party chairman if he failed to resign.

Addressing journalists, the spokesman for the PDP, Kola Ologbondiyan called for calm.

He enjoyed aggrieved members to explore available internal dispute resolution mechanisms to address their grievances.

Ologbondiyan said: “The National Working Committee of our great party at its meeting today, received the notice of the resignation from deputies who are elected members of the National Executive Committee.

“The meeting of the National Working Committee and the deputies immediately took place to dialogue on the issues that were raised. The party will look into the grievances raised by members of NEC as well as members of the National Working Committee.

“The internal conflict resolution mechanism of our party has also been immediately activated to put these issues behind us.

“We call on all the leaders, stakeholders, and members of our great party to remain calm as we collectively resolve these issues."