The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has said it will not succumb to mob action mentality to punish its members who are accused of engaging in anti-party activities.
The national publicity secretary of PDP, Hon Debo Ologunagba said the party will abide by its laws and procedures for applying sanctions, and not the emotion of some party members.
Stressing that investigations must be conducted and a report filed on the matter, he added that the disciplinary committee is being reconstituted to undertake the task.
There have been agitations within the party for the sanctioning of a group of PDP governors for anti-party activities in the 2023 election and their declaration of repeat same in the 2027 election.
The group which now comprises of four former governors and one incumbent governor, namely Rivers Governor, now Federal Capital Territory (FCT) minister, Nyesom Wike; former Abia governor, Okezie Ikpeazu; former Benue governor, Samuel Ortom; former Enugu governor, Hon Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi; and incumbent Oyo State governor, Seyi Makinde, had supported the 2023 All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu to win the election.
They had refused to support the PDP candidate, Atiku Abubakar, following a fallout after the party primaries.
However, indications have emerged that the much sought after reconciliation within the party might drag on for a long while as the warring camps are still locked in the blame game that stretches back to the 2015 election.
Checks by LEADERSHIP Sunday revealed that the camp led by the party presidential candidate in 2023, Atiku Abubakar, and that of Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, disagree over the need for sanctions.
While the Atiku camp stresses sanction over the incident of 2023 election, the Wike camp insists on reconciliation based on squaring of scores over the outcome of the 2015 election.
More so, the battle which has become politically existential of sorts has become intertwined in the politics for who emerges the presidential candidate of PDP in 2027.
Recall that last Thursday’s National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of PDP resolved to reconstitute the Disciplinary and reconciliation committees to further ensure the stability of the party. It further extended the life of the Constitution Amendment Committee of the party to receive new proposals.
The NEC had also saved the acting national chairman of PDP, Ambassador Illiya Damagum from being evicted from office, offering to allow him remain in office for the next three months to conduct congresses in Abia, Akwa Ibom, Bauchi, Bayelsa, Gombe, Benue, Cross River, Delta, Ekiti and Enugu States.
Wike’s camp had opposed calls for Damagum’s removal, in spite of allegations by Atiku’s camp that the acting national chairman is doing the bidding of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
But speaking on calls for sanction against the Wike and his group, Ologunagba, during a programme on Arise TV yesterday, said “Can we for a second take a rest and stop this fixation on individuals and persons. I will emphasise this, PDP is a party of rule of law and procedure. If you are accused, it is called allegations and you need to prove it. The fact that someone becomes very emotional about a situation cannot distract from the fact that there must be a process.
“So, what we have done is there is a disciplinary committee set up which is a process provided for in the constitution. The so called, I use the word advisedly, it did just not happen at the national, it also happened in the states, the allegations need to be investigated through a process where you need to allow people to make a representation, rule of law, fair hearing, and they need to make a report, that is what is called a political party where you don’t do a mob action.
“Investigations must go on. We are reconstituting those committees and the processes will go on. And the Nigerian people who are interested in what PDP can do and what PDP has done from its record would give us a chance that we are a party of process, procedure of law and constitution that is what we are doing,” he said.
However, resolving the crisis of confidence within PDP would be a herculean task for the reconciliation committee it was learnt.
A source from the Wike camp told LEADERSHIP Sunday that, “The challenge is where will the discipline start and where will it end.?
Some people, after much pleading, worked against the party in the 2015 election and they just returned to claim most of the positions in 2019 and repeated the same in 2023.
“We believe the best way to go is to address those issues that caused a breakdown of confidence within our ranks and it goes back to 2015 as well as the winner takes all mentality of the 2022 primaries. So, we rather see things through the eyes of reconciliation rather than sanction,” the source, a former party leader in the South East said.
However, a former NWC member, who leans towards the Atiku camp, argued that in the case of those who made the party lose in 2015, they “left the party and worked against it.”
“Unlike what we have now, they didn’t remain within the PDP and openly declare that they will work against it even ahead of the 2027 election. This is really absurd and different from the pre-2015 scenario. So the party needs to be clear about how it goes about this because it will create more problems going forward,” the former party national executive said.
Recall that Atiku and five governors, namely Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso (Kano); Aliyu Wammako (Sokoto); Murtala Nyako (Adamawa); Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers); and Ahmed Abdulfatah (Kwara) had dumped PDP in protest against then President Goodluck Jonathan’s insistence on contesting the 2015 election, among other demands.
Although former governors Sule Lamido and Babangida Aliyu of Jigawa and Niger States, who were part of the agitating governors stayed back in PDP, their commitment to PDP’s victory at the 2015 polls remained suspected.
The aggrieved PDP leaders had accused President Jonathan of not allowing the North complete its tenure under the party’s leadership, following the demise of Late President Umar Musa Yar’Adua who served a little over three years in office after President Olusegun Obasanjo’s eight years.
Meanwhile, the forthcoming congress in the states has opened up a fresh battleground for the Wike and Atiku camps.
