Sixty members of the House of Representatives elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, on Monday, demanded the resignation of the party’s acting National Chairman, Umar Damagum.
The development may not be unconnected to the political war between the Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, and the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike.
The 60 lawmakers hinged their call for Damagum’s resignation on his alleged silence amid the political crisis between Wike and Fubara in Rivers State.
Fubara and Wike’s loyalists have been at loggerheads in a political crisis in Rivers State.
Last October, 27 lawmakers loyal to Wike moved to impeach Fubara, a move he vehemently fought against and survived.
An intervention by President Bola Tinubu last year helped to douse the tension for a while, however, the political gladiators seem to be back in the trenches lately, signaling the breakdown of the agreement reached at the meeting presided over by Tinubu.
Last week, the 27 pro-Wike lawmakers threatened to reactivate the impeachment move against Fubara, a situation that has seen the governor’s supporters pushing back and questioning the legitimacy of the 27 lawmakers on the grounds that they had defected from the PDP to the All Progressives Congress in the heat of the crisis last year.
On Monday, 60 lawmakers led by the PDP member representing Ideato North/Ideato South Federal Constituency, Imo State, Ikenga Ugochinyere, demanded the resignation of Damagum, accusing him of, among others, siding with Wike and working for the ruling APC, a party that gave Wike the FCT ministerial appointment.
The 60 lawmakers alleged that the 27 pro-Wike lawmakers seeking to impeach Fubara had Damagum’s backing.
Speaking on their behalf, Ugochinyere said, “Have Nigerians wondered why Damagun kept quiet while 27 members of Rivers State House of Assembly elected on the platform of PDP left the party? He kept quiet while they were threatening to impeach a governor in his party. Nigerians will be shocked to hear that Damagun was consulted and is fully aware of the entire details of the plots to impeach the Rivers State Governor and he gave his approval to the plot, yet he refers to himself as a chairman of a party. The shamelessness in this entire episode is limitless.
“If Rabiu Kwankwaso could leave the PDP and build a party and win Kano State with several federal and state lawmakers and Peter Obi also left the PDP to grow the Labour Party to win Abia State as well as several federal and state lawmakers, then Damagun and his allies could as well leave the PDP and go ahead to support the APC since their spirit is already out of the PDP.”
The 60 PDP Reps also said, “We have now received credible intelligence of a plot to use the Federal High Court to secure a secret ex parte order that will attempt to legalise the illegal extension of the about-to-expire tenure of LGA chairmen in Rivers State, which was carried out by the former members of the state Assembly who lost legitimacy as lawmakers, the very moment they decamped to the APC knowing full well that there was no crisis in the PDP, hence, their seats as lawmakers became vacant immediately the remaining legitimate members declared the seats vacant.
“We are raising this alarm in view of the legitimacy of the desperate move which if not halted can lead to anarchy and collapse of constitutional governance. We want to call on the Chief Judge of Federal High Court, Justice Omotosho and other eminent judges to be aware of these plots that those behind it are already celebrating that the ex parte order is in their pocket awaiting release to the media even when the case has not been heard.
“To our respected Chief Judge, we are compelled to publicly bring this shocking development to your attention for the interest of justice and preservation of the image of our nation’s judiciary,” the group further said.
But the Minority Leader of the House, Mr Kingsley Chinda, who is a known political associate of the FCT Minister, was conspicuously absent at Monday’s briefing, fuelling insinuations that the war between Wike and Fubara had extended beyond the shores of Rivers State.
The lawmakers demanded that Damagum should immediately leave to pave the way for the emergence of a new PDP Chairman from the North Central zone of the country.
Damagum became the PDP acting National Chairman after Wike orchestrated the removal of the party’s acting Chairman, Iyorchia Ayu, who is from Benue State in the North Central geopolitical zone.
Ahead of the PDP’s 98th National Executive Committee holding on April 18, The PUNCH learnt that governors elected on the party platform are divided over who will replace and complete Ayu’s tenure.
Speaking further, Ugochinyere said, “We demand the immediate resignation of Damagun as acting National Chairman of the PDP for anti-party activities. The North Central zone should be allowed to produce the acting Chairman as clearly stated in the PDP Constitution. Watch us reconsider our membership of the party in the months ahead if the right thing is not done.
“We also call for the removal of Damagun by the National Executive Committee of the party with further sanctions against him for his anti-party activities.
Describing Damagum as unfit to lead the party to battle, the lawmakers said the Yobe politician “was only constitutionally allowed to step in, hold the forte and ‘midwive’ the process through which the North Central zone, where the chairmanship of the party was originally zoned, should present another person who would complete the slot of the North Central.
“Not only did Damagun hold tight unto the seat for well over a year now, he has abdicated every responsibility of the office of the chairman of PDP and is very comfortable serving APC interests.
“There had been an agreement of a broad spectrum of the party leadership when it became clear that Damagum was not interested in conducting elections but to appoint caretaker committees in at least 19 states where the tenures of the state and local government leaders were expiring to extend the tenures of these officials by three months.
“This decision, which was made to cover every state, was the wisdom that restrained Damagum from announcing a wholesale list of a majority of caretaker committees populated by APC agents masquerading as PDP members.
“However, despite that decision to retain everybody, Mr Damagun went ahead and received a list of APC agents and announced them as members and leaders of the PDP local government caretaker committees wholesomely in Rivers State and partially in at least 10 other states. This is a direct attempt to kill the PDP and ensure it goes into extinction.”
The lawmakers also accused Damagum of failing to retain most of the states in the South-East, noting that currently, the party is only in charge in Enugu State, “which it literally snatched from the jaw of a lion.”
The aggrieved lawmakers added that the party “lost Benue, Abia and Sokoto states. The PDP leadership kept mute while PDP state and federal lawmakers lost their seats at the tribunal and Court of Appeal on grounds that were obviously untenable, which have since been upturned by the Supreme Court.
“If the party had spoken up and raised the necessary alarm, all our colleagues in Imo and Plateau states, particularly, would have been with us in the Assembly today.”
Addressing the National Chairman frontally, Ugochinyere said, “You have a chance to resign immediately, leave or be embarrassed out of the party. At least 60 of us in the PDP in the National Assembly will sever all relations with the Damagun leadership until he leaves office. At the scheduled National Executive Committee meeting, if Damagun, by any maneuvering, however, conjectured, remains in office with the help of his APC friends at the end of the day, the party is now heading to the final slaughter shed.”
At the briefing were lawmakers representing Okehi/Adavi Federal Constituency, Kogi State, Abdulmaleek Danga; member representing Askira-Uba/Hawul Federal Constituency, Borno State, Midala Balami and and member, representing Ikara/Kubau, Kaduna State, Aliyu Abdullahi.
Attempts to reach Damagum were unsuccessful as he neither answered calls placed to his mobile line nor responded to a text message.
