16 hours ago
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The National Acting Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Amb. Umar Damagum, has denied rumour making the rounds that its meeting with state chairmen was billed to address issues relating to the party National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting that has been postponed three times.
While deflating the rumour at a meeting held at the party headquarters in Abuja on Wednesday, Damagum noted that the party had such meetings before, saying it was not the first time.
He said: “For the record, 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, 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.
“You can read it. I have not met any of you chairmen, from the time you were invited until in this hall, if I am right. So, for the record, I want to set the record straight. There is no such issue.
“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 record, 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 ongoing Zonal Congresses.
“As you know, there are already forms for the Zonal Congresses.”
While fielding questions from newsmen after the meeting, the PDP Chairman, Imo state and Interim Chairman, PDP Chairman’s Forum, Austin Nwachukwu, said the meeting was simply to familiarize selves with the National Working Committee.
Nwachukwu added: “Recall that a few months back, a lot of state congresses were held from wards, local government to the state.
“The NWC deemed it feet to gather all of us in Abuja to enable us to know each other. It is essentially to familiarize ourselves with the NWC and those of them whose tenure are still running and will be running out next year.
“We also discussed about zonal congresses. The forms are out, and those people that feel like contesting can go through their zonal offices to purchase the forms. We harped on unity among members of the party and across board.”
On Edo and Ondo states elections, he added: “You know the elections that the ruling party conduct now, you know what they do.
“We want to clear that erroneous impressions that the fortunes of the party is diminishing each day, it is not. It is looking stronger into the new dispensation.
“What you may call crisis in the party is just cosmetic. They are doing their work, they are all intact. You can see all of them in the meeting. So I don’t see where the crisis you are talking about is coming from. Social media hype, is that where the problems in the party is being discussed?
“We are here today, we didn’t see anybody coming to accuse the NWC of anything or that this is the issue that we should look at.”
