Victor EzejaThe People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has recently been engulfed in crisis leading to mass resignation and defection of party members.
But the National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan said the party is not as a bad as presented, asserting that the party still has strong presence in all parts of the country.
The PDP spokesman who stated this while participating in a morning programme on Arise Tv channel, monitored by Prime Business Africa on Thursday, noted that the party’s strength should not be judged by the fact that top members are leaving, as many ordinary members have remained with the party.
To prove his point, Ologbondyan claimed that the party which plans to launch E-registration of members on August 9 2021, created a logo for it, which was placed on party website and in less than 48 hours, received over one million likes from Nigerians who wants to register with PDP.
“Not even INEC could achieve that under 48 hours. So the People’s Democratic Party, no matter what matter we are seeing in the outside of it, no matter the perception that is being created by what the media choose to call ‘gale of defection,’ I can assure you that we are standing strong, and prepared,” Ologbondiyan said.
He remarked that no member of the party is more important than others, as every member is important, adding that the exit of any member is not a signal that the party is becoming weak. He advised party leaders to act with a sense of responsibility and be “temperate” in their reactions to issues, and exhibit attitudes that engender harmonization of relationship within the party.
He added that there is bound to be conflict in every organization, but what matters is that at the end, it is resolved. Ologbondiyan also disclosed that an internal dispute resolution mechanism has been activated by the party leadership to address the issues besetting the party.
As believed in some quarters, one of the reasons behind the defection of members is failure of the party leadership to address internal party crisis. Seven members of National Working Committee (NWC) of the party resigned on Tuesday.
Barely 24 hours later, Senator Joy Emordi, a member of the party’s Board of Trustees, (BOT) defected to APC, just as four members of NWC are said to be considering resignation over alleged poor leadership of the national Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus.
Prince Secondus yesterday accused some party members of stoking tension in the party in order to dent the image of the chairman.
Speaking through his media adviser, Ike Abonyi, the party chairman said that there is a party chieftain trying to highjack party leadership a few months to the party’s national convention. He accused the unknown chieftain of dolling out cash to bribe party members in an attempt to sway them to form a caretaker committee that will now organize the convention.
“What continues to shock many party observers is the real reason behind the desperation of this man to get at the national chairman and the quantum of public funds being expended to achieve this illicit goal few months to the national convention.”
In reaction to Secondus’ comment, the former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, yesterday stated that there is no hand in Secondus’ current ordeal. He dismissed speculations that his recent meeting with Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State has anything to do with the calls for removal of Prince Secondus as party chairman, noting that he stands for peace and stability of PDP.
PDP governors are to meet on Monday over the lingering crisis.
Victor Ezeja is a passionate journalist with six years of experience writing on economy, politics and energy. He holds a Masters degree in Mass Communication.
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