The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) National Working Committee (NWC) has raised a 10-man committee to establish remote reasons its senators and representatives members failed to abide by the decision of the party during the National Assembly leadership elections.
This is coming barely 24 hours after the party’s Board of Trustees (BoT) set up 5-man panel to investigate what led to the emergency of Hon Ndudi Elumelu as the minority leader of the House of Representatives contrary to the position of the party.
Ndudi along with the other five members of the party who were appointed into the minority leadership positions by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila were later suspended for a month.
Speaking Wednesday in Abuja while unveiling members of the committee, the PDP national chairman, Prince Uche Secondus, who was represented by the deputy chairman South, Elder Yomi Akinwumi, boasted that the level of internal democracy in PDP far supersedes what obtains in other party.
Accordingly, he said the party does not and will not tolerate any act capable of undermining its internal democracy and discipline.
He explained that “What we are doing is a display of internal democracy. This is the advantage PDP has over other political parties in Nigeria. This is what brought us to the level we are, respect for internal democracy. We solve issues by dialogue, by discussions, by looking at the two sides of the coin. This you will never find in other political parties in Nigeria.
Referring to the All Progressives Congress (APC), he said “If you go to our sister party you will see crises, placards being displayed, demonstrations here and there but you can never find such in the PDP because we are bless with people that are knowledgeable, people that are intelligent, people that can think ahead of others.
“You will look at the governors, the governors forum, all the strata of the party so that you can go into the nitty gritty of what happened and advise the party appropriately. You have done it before and we believe you will doubt do it again”, he said adding that the panel has three weeks to complete its findings and submit report to the NWC.
Specifically, the terms of reference include: To investigate and find out whether there is any involvement of the ruling party in the decision taken by the members involved.
Where there are established reasons for taking the action by the members, the individual members should be identified so that the party creates mutual and political atmosphere for reasonable interaction with honourable members.
To find out and recommend ways to checkmate such tendencies in the future and ensure that all members work together to defend the interest of the party at all times and circumstances.
Responding, the chairman of the committee, Senator Wabara, described the assignment as a very serious one and promised that the committee will perform its duties in accordance with the terms of reference.
The members of the committee are: former Senate President, Senator Adolphus Wabara, chairman, former national secretary, Prof Wale Oladukpo – secretary. Others are Senator Ben Obi, Hon Yohana Iliya, Senator Ibrahim Mantu, Hon Austin Okpala, Senator Stella Omu, Rt. Hon Magreth Icheen, Hon Hassan Hyatt and Senator Abdul Ningi.