As the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) prepares for its National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting on November 28, Acting National Chairman Ambassador Umar Ilyas Damagum chaired a crucial meeting with PDP state chairmen from across the 36 states on Wednesday in Abuja.
During the meeting, held at the party’s national headquarters in Wadata Plaza, Damagum and the state chairmen dismissed claims of internal tension or threats to his leadership.
In separate interviews, the chairmen, who also serve as members of the NEC under the PDP Constitution, expressed unanimous support for Damagum.
Despite calls from some party members, including National Publicity Secretary Kola Ologbondiyan, for Damagum’s replacement over alleged poor leadership and recent electoral defeats in Edo and Ondo states, the state chairmen maintained there was no cause for concern.
Damagum, appearing confident and composed, described the meeting as a routine familiarization visit, contrary to the speculation of discord circulating on social media.
The state chairmen echoed his sentiments, emphasizing their collective resolve to maintain unity ahead of the NEC meeting.
Newly elected state chairmen of the PDP, along with incumbent chairmen from all thirty-six states and the Federal Capital Territory, convened with members of the PDP National Executive Council (NEC) led by Ambassador Damagum.
Damagum emphasized that the state chairmen’s visit was primarily a familiarization tour, rather than the conflict and threats being circulated on social media.
Damagum said: “My state chairmen are my commander in the States, this is not an unusual meeting, we’ve had this kind of meeting before; this is not the first time and for the records, I want to make it very clear that this meeting was to interact with the state chairmen.
“You can see from the introduction, that more than half of the state chairmen here are brand new and it is for us to know ourselves and also discuss other matters such as the coming Zonal Congresses; it has nothing to do, like has been insinuated in the social media, about NEC or something of that nature and I had no prior meeting with any of the state chairmen before we met in this hall.
“Issues of NEC are entirely within the purview of NWC and the chairman, so we are not calling the chairmen here to maybe insinuate anything; so, just for the records, it is a normal interactive session to welcome the new chairmen that have just joined us and also to know ourselves and to further discuss the on-going plans for Zonal Congresses,” Damagum stated.
Speaking on behalf of his colleagues after the meeting on Wednesday evening, Chief Austin Nwachukwu, the Imo State PDP Chairman who is also the Interim Chairman of the PDP State Chairmen’s Forum told reporters that there is no tension, adding that they also found no need to declare a vote of confidence in Ambassador Damagum because all is well with the party’s leadership.
Nwachukwu said: “The meeting is simply to familiarize ourselves with the National Working Committee; recall that a few months back, a lot of state congresses were held from wards, local government to the state and the NWC deemed it feet to gather all of us in Abuja to enable us know each other
“We also discussed zonal congresses, the forms are out and those people who feel like contesting can go through their zonal offices to purchase the forms; we harped on unity among members of the party and across the board while nothing about the coming PDP NEC meeting or a vote of confidence was discussed.
“We want to clear that erroneous impression that the fortunes of the party is diminishing each day, it is not; it is looking stronger into the new dispensation and what you may call a crisis in the party is just cosmetic,” Nwachukwu said, who blamed the PDP’s recent electoral losses on the tactics of the ruling party rather than allegations of poor leadership being attributed to Ambassador Umar Damagum.
