Orbih’s Meeting Illegal, PDP Tells South-South Leaders

The crisis within the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the South-South region continues as the party’s zonal secretary, Chief Felix Omemu, has declared a scheduled meeting in Benin, Edo State, on Saturday, February 15, as illegal.

This comes as the national leadership of the party declared that the 10-member caretaker committee led by Dr. Tony Aziegbemi as chairman and Hon Henry Duke Tenebe as secretary, is still in charge of the Edo State chapter of PDP.

The national publicity secretary of PDP, Hon Debo Ologungba said this yesterday. He said the declaration was against the backdrop of activities of certain individuals parading themselves as the party executives in Edo State.

Although he didn’t name the persons he said they have been “illegally arrogating offices to themselves, issuing unauthorised directives, attempting to convene meetings and engaging in other actions that are inimical to the stability of our Party in Edo State.”

Meanwhile, in a statement issued in Yenagoa, Omemu stressed that the meeting, convened by Chief Dan Orbih, was not authorised, stressing that the PDP Constitution requires approval from the Zonal Working Committee (ZWC) before calling for a Zonal Executive Committee (ZEC) meeting, and no such approval was given.

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Citing Section 26 (2c) of the party’s constitution, Omemu emphasized that the ZWC had not met to agree on any reports for the planned meeting, adding that he was unaware of any decision permitting such a gathering and distanced himself from it.

‘’In line with Section 26, (2c) of our party’s Constitution as amended in 2017, there was no such a time that the Zonal Working Committee meeting being a precursor to the Zonal Executive Committee agreed on any reports to be discussed at the Saturday’s scheduled meeting.

‘’As the Zonal Secretary of the party, I am therefore, not aware of such a meeting that purportedly resolved that ZWC could go ahead to convene the highest meeting of the party leaders in the Zone and so, I wish to distance myself from such an illegal ZEC meeting and gathering being called by Chief Dan Orbih’’, he said.

He urged PDP leaders in the South-South to stay away from the meeting, warning that the meeting has been convened to further harm the interest of the party.

The Zonal Scribe also called on key party stakeholders including governors, former governors, National Assembly members, state lawmakers, and party executives, to intervene and prevent the unauthorised meeting.

‘’I also wish to call on my colleagues in the zone to boycott Saturday’s meeting whose agenda remains suspicious and may not likely serve the general interest of the party as it is clear that the majority of the leaders of the party in the zone were not duly consulted before calling for the meeting.

‘’By this statement, I am placing on alert the key PDP leaders in the South-South zone including our state governors, former governors on the platform of the PDP, members of the National Assembly from the zone, Principal Officers of the State Houses of Assembly from the zone, members of the National Working Committee from the zone and also State Chairmen of our party from the zone.

‘’I urge the leaders of the party in the zone to call Chief Orbih to order a move to avoid any untoward consequences of allowing an illegal meeting to be held in the zone”, he said.