PDP Ibadan convention: More states, stakeholders disown process

The factional convention of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at the weekend has escalated the crisis in the party.
More chapters and stakeholders have continued to fault the procedure and rejected the expulsion of 11 stalwarts, including Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister Nyesom Wike, former Ekiti State Governor Ayodele Fayose and National Secretary, Senator Samuel Anyanwu.
A party source said over the weekend that both factions are gearing up for the next phase of legal fireworks at the court.
The Umar Iliya Damagun-led faction had ignored the judgments of the Federal High Court that restrained the party from conducting the convention, leaning on the exparte order of the Ibadan High Court, which adjourned till December 8 for the resumption of hearing in the case instituted against the party by a chieftain, Folahan Malomo Adelabi.
Rejecting the outcome of the Ibadan convention, the Imo State chapter, in a statement by its Publicity Secretary, Lancelot Obiaku, described it as a “mere gathering of a lawless Committee of Friends,” which ignored court rulings, violated internal procedures, and paraded suspended and expelled members as delegates.
Obiaku said: “It was a tea party of lawless friends, a sham convention drenched in illegality.”
The party officer reaffirmed the loyalty of the chapter to Acting National Chairman Abdulrahman Mohammed and National Secretary Senator Samuel Anyanwu and Senator Samuel Anyanwu as National Secretary, stressing that the refusal of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to monitor the event underscored its lack of legitimacy.
Obiaku described the dissolution of Imo PDP executives as “wishful” thinking.
He said: “We completely disregard the news making the rounds that our structure has been dissolved, as such is only a wishful thought existing in the imaginations of its purveyors.”