Signs of trouble may have emerged in the Abia state chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the party prepares for its zonal, state, LGA, and ward congresses.
The Abia state caucus of the PDP had in a meeting held on February 18,2020, resolved to set up a congress committee to make recommendations on the path the party would toe in conducting its congresses in the state.
The committee had recommended adopted of zoning formula for all the positions in the party from the state level down to the ward levels.
Consequently, it zoned the chairmanship of the party to Abia South, and also stated that positions in the 17 LGAs of the state should be rotated in line with the zoning formula already on ground.
These recommendations were wholeheartedly adopted on Sunday, March 1, 2020, during a follow up caucus meeting of the party, according to a credible source.
And in strict compliance with the resolution of the party caucus, almost all the LGAs in the state have begun to implement the zoning formula.
However, the party National Organising Secretary, Colonel Austin Akobundu rtd, has been accused of jettisoning the zoning policy in his own LGA, Ikwuano, instead insisted on on handpicking the party’s chairman.
Those close to him say that Col. Akobundu’s intention was to use the foisting of LGA party executives on the people as a platform for deciding who occupies any elective position from the LGA, starting with Executive Chairmanship position of the LGA later this year— a position he has said will be taken by his in-law who is from the same clan as him, Oloko.
Meanwhile, in an emergency meeting held on Sunday, 1st of March, 2020, the PDP youths of Ibere clan had stated clearly that the clan is only interested in the LGA chairmanship of the party, and had threatened that if their right was not honoured by the party, they would decamp to another party that will take into account the interest of the clan.
As the plot thickens, the Ariam/Usaka wards of the party in a unanimous resolution passed during their meeting on Saturday 7th March, 2020, suspended the outgoing LGA chairman of the party, Elder Obioma Igwe, for anti-party activities, and affirmed the clan’s decision that they are only interested in taking their position as the clan that will produce the next executive chairman of the LGA and not the party’s next LGA chairman.
It is reported that some PDP youths from Ikwuano have begun to stage protests against “the conversion of PDP Ikwuano to the Akobundu-family property”, calling on the national chairman of the party, Prince Uche Secondus, and the entire PDP leadership at the state and national levels to call Akobundu to order.