By Emma Asie
A former State chairman of the PDP and a key player in Anambra politics, Honorable Sir Ndubuisi Nwobu (Obuka Awka) has reassured party faithfuls and all Nigerians that the party will bounce back from its current travails better, stronger and more united.
He gave the assurance when he featured as guest on Alpha Radio s Political Heat, anchored by Emmanuel Asiegbunam, (Mr E on the Mic).
Hon Nwobu condemned in strong terms the frivolous and ill-advised Exparte order of the Benue state Federal High Court that asked the party's national chairman Senator Iyorchia Ayu, to quit parading himself as as the national chairman based on his alleged suspension by the Executives of Ward in Gboko Local Government Area of the state. According to him, that order ought not to have been given in the first place as going by Section 57 (1) of the PDP s constitution, the ward and indeed all other organs,branches and arms of the party do not have the powers to discipline any member of the National Excos,of which Sen Ayu is the chief. He recalled that same scenario played out in the days of Uche Secondus but that the judge that gave such similar orders then, later faced disciplinary measures from the National Judicial Council (NJC). He called on the PDP National leadership to quickly report the Benue Federal High Court judge to the NJC for similar disciplinary measures and regretted that some judicial officers due to inducements, have refused to learn from the past.
Nonetheless, he praised the party for living up to it's philosophy of being a law abiding party by asking the chairman to step aside and in accordance with it's rules, having the most Senior national officer from Sen Ayu s northern zone in person of Iliya Umar Damagun, take over in acting capacity. He expressed confidence that come April 17 when the substantive suit will be heard, the order will be set aside and the entire suit dismissed for lack of merit as it has no place in the party s constitution. He opined strongly that Sen Ayu will resume office after April 17.
He was certain that the party despite it's current relatively unimpressive show in the state assembly elections, will bounce back stronger and better. He traced the party's poor outing in the state to the bandwagon effect of the Labour party and Obidient Movement,noting that most of the candidates of the Labor Party, and YPP, that won, were members of the PDP that for one reason or the other did not make it through the party's primaries and decamped to these parties at the last minute and rode on the wings of Peter Obi s popularity to emerge victorious.
At the national level, the former state chairman, praised the party for it's impressive outing and insisted that the electoral umpire, INEC robbed the party of the presidency by refusing to transmit election results electronically real time as it's guidelines provided and it's chairman Prof Mahmoud Yakubu and other INEC officials promised in many fora. He was optimistic that the tribunals will restore the party s mandate.
The former state chairman also berated the G5 for it's roles in the woes of the party especially Governor Wike of Rivers for spearheading and bankrolling the crises. He noted sadly that most of G5 governors lost their election as a result of this. He condemned Gov Wike for seeking for the resignation of the party s chairman on unrealistic terms, pointing out that the Group under Gov Samuel Ortom of Benue state as Head of the Zoning committee, denied the south east the zoning of the party s presidential ticket to the zone because of Wike s desire to clinch to clinch the ticket. In his own words "Due to selfish reasons, no member of that committee which was made up of 36 persons from each states of the federation, wrote a minority report, hence the decision to throw the race open was seen as an unanimous one. But today we can also see where it has led us to".
But according to him the PDP being a resilient party, will bounce back stronger.
