The meeting of the Peoples Democratic Party National Working Committee (NWC) will be held on Thursday amidst fresh threats from the South-East zonal caucus that it would quit the party if its preferred candidate, Sunday Ude-Okoye, is not installed as the National Secretary.
The crisis of the party’s secretaryship tops the agenda that the NWC deliberates on during its meeting.
The two contestants – Senator Samuel Anyanwu and Ude-Okoye, over the national secretary position, had divided the party, with the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, who has insisted that Anyanwu is leading one faction. In contrast, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar leads the other faction.
The South-East Zonal Executive Committee (ZEC) on Wednesday unanimously reaffirmed Ude-Okoye as the zone’s consensus candidate to replace Anyanwu as national secretary.
There is another dimension to the crisis; the 83 administrative staff members of the PDP secretariat have declared support for the acting national secretary, Setonji Koshoedo. That is not expected to cause much friction, depending on how the leadership of the party can handle this aspect.
The NWC would, among other agenda consider the party’s NEC and national convention in August, if the Bukola Saraki-led reconciliation committee can achieve its mandate, as well as the recurring security concerns at the party’s national secretariat, Wadata Plaza, located in Zone 5, Abuja.
Apart from the demand for the party’s National Secretary, the South East Caucus has raised another issue they want the party to look into, which is the term “consistent challenges faced by the South-East PDP in filling vacant national positions, compared to other zones.”
