Written by Leon Usigbe, Abuja Wednesday, 16 June 2010
THE National Working Committee (NWC) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will today deliberate on a memorandum recommending a waiver for Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo to clear the way for him to be confirmed as the new national chairman of the party.
The NWC has prepared the memorandum to be presented before the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting tomorrow (Thursday), following the proposal put forward by the South-East executives of the PDP who want the former national secretary of the party to be granted exemption to the rule which requires a candidate for any office to have spent two years at a stretch in the party.
Dr. Nwodo only returned to the PDP in June 2009, having left the party to contest the 2003 governorship election under the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and later joined the Action Congress (AC) before finally berthing in the mega party.
A top party source revealed to the Nigerian Tribune in Abuja on Tuesday that the NWC meeting today would deliberate on the memorandum which it has already drawn with a view to approving it before presenting it to the NEC which would ratify it tomorrow.
“We have to approve the memo in line with the recommendation of the South-East executives because that is what they want. Since that is their position, we have to approve and pass it to the NEC to ratify. Nwodo will be announced as the party’s chairman at the NEC,” the source volunteered.
Meanwhile, the party is making strenuous effort to convince the PDP Solidarity Forum which recently went to court in an attempt to stop the nomination of Dr. Nwodo as the National Chairman of the party.
Its NWC, led by the Acting National Chairman, Dr. Haliru Bello Mohammed, on Tuesday, invited the convener of the forum, Ikenga Imo Ugo Chiinyere, to the national secretariat complex of the party in Abuja where they pleaded with him to discontinue with his court case to stop Dr. Nwodo to enable the NEC’s action to proceed.
A party source told the Nigerian Tribune that the party took the step in order not to be seen as going against the principles of rule of law which the present administration is advocating, especially if it went ahead with the nomination of Dr. Nwodo in defiance of any court order.
Chinyere confirmed to newsmen at the party secretariat that he had been invited in view of tomorrow’s NEC, to a meeting with the acting national chairman of the party and other members of the party’s NWC but insisted that he had not made any promise to them.
The PDP Solidarity Forum convener alleged that since he went to court, his life had been threatened by unnamed party members for what he said was his effort to ensure that things were done in the PDP in the proper way.
He said “I want to tell you gentlemen of the press that the dimension it is taking I don’t find it funny.
You know people are threatening me left, right and centre, putting me under pressure. I am not talking of those I met upstairs (party secretariat) but virtually my life has been in danger since the matter started.
“I have received phone calls, telling me that if this matter is not resolved before Thursday, I will meet my waterloo. I want Nigerians to join me and make this point. What I am fighting for is not about Nwodo but it is about best practices in the parties,” he said.
He added: “Yes, I understand that the party may be at a crossroads right now, I understand that the party has a NEC meeting on Thursday. I understand that the party knows it can’t go ahead with a pending matter in court and that they cannot discuss those issues in court. These are issues,” Chinyere stated.
He maintained his opposition to the granting of a waiver to Dr. Nwodo, saying “the party has no right to issue a waiver and this is going to be the bone of contention on Thursday.
“Are we going to give a waiver to somebody who is already a candidate inside that hall and then make him the chairman of the party?” he queried.
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