A member of the House of Representatives, representing Ideato North/South federal constituency, Hon. Ikenga Ugochinyere (PDP, Imo), has said that no congress of the People’s Democratic Party was held in Rivers State last weekend, rather the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, only held a party with his friends, under the guise of a party congress.
The main opposition party’s state congresses took place last Saturday, and was marred by complaints from several states, including Rivers, Benue, Katsina, and Kogi.
In Rivers State, the congress was held despite an existing court order stopping the exercise. This has led to a dispute between the National Working Committee (NWC) of the PDP that authorised the congress and the PDP Governors Forum, which asserts that Governor Siminalayi Fubara remains the party leader in the state.
The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Nyesom Wike, and his faction are also claiming control of the party structure after the congress that was boycotted by the state governor and his supporters. But, the PDP has stated that the process was subject to review by the party’s organs.
Reacting to the development, Ugochinyere, who’s the spokesperson of G-60 federal lawmakers in the House of Representatives, in a statement, described the supposed congress held by Wike faction of the PDP as laughable and a jamboree.
According to the PDP chieftain, no PDP congress was held in Rivers State, rather Wike, out of desperation to look good before his ‘dwindling followers’, who are losing confidence in him, held an owambe party and called it a state congress.
The federal lawmaker, recalling the interim order stopping PDP from holding congresses in Rivers State, said the ‘party’ Wike conducted for he and his friends was an exercise in futility.
The statement read, “Take it from me, there is no PDP state Congress yet in Rivers state , Wike out of desperation to look good before his dwindling followers who are losing confidence in him held an owambe party and called it state Congress. Recall that in July, a State High Court holden in Port Harcourt, Rivers State and presided over by Justice Charles Wali had issued an interim order stopping PDP from holding congresses in the state.
“The court decision was clear and the Congress was stopped from holding and so if people out of desperation gather to hold a family or kindred meeting from their hideout under the guise of Congress, you can only but pity and laugh at their political frolicking caused by joblessness and desperate quest for power that have eluded them.
“Defying the court orders, some members of PDP hobnobbing with the APC reportedly made an attempt to pass off some family gatherings of their faction as PDP congress. The purported Congress is a nullity and an exercise in futility as there is still an existing valid other against any conduct of Congress in Rivers and in view of that the purported Congress will be set aside as you can’t put something on nothing.”
