TheCable

Governors elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) say the decision to remove or retain Umar Damagum as the chairman lies with the national executive committee (NEC).

Bala Mohammed, govenor of Bauchi and chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum, spoke on Wednesday night at a meeting in Abuja.

“NEC will take decisions on such issues, not the governors,” he said.

“I know the governors normally take leadership positions but we have an acting person in leadership capacity leading the party and NEC will decide whether it is time to fill the vacancy looking at the legal implications of doing that knowing that there are so many lingering litigations in court.

“And of course, we do not want to disparage ourselves because we know that there are some marauders hiding somewhere trying to factionalise our party and take one faction to go and do a coalition.

“We are not going to allow that as governors. We are very responsible and we are very credible and we make sure we resolve all the issues and unify the party for maximum efficiency and success in the next election.”

‘WE’LL RESOLVE LEADERSHIP CRISIS’

Mohammed said all lingering crises around the leadership of the party would be resolved.

“I said the issues have been resolved and we are looking forward to doing everything within the constitutional provision of the party,” he said.

“We are talking about resolving all the issues and going forward so that at the end of the day, the timeline allowed in the constitution for congresses would have been done.

“But certainly, the public is free to permutate, to discuss and of course, NEC will decide on some of these issues.

“There are no contending forces, who is NEC? NEC is the PDP Governors Forum and other stakeholders. So, we are just a portion of NEC. We cannot talk on behalf of NEC until we get there.”

There have been calls by some party stakeholders, including members of the house of representatives for Damagum to resign from his position.

The lawmakers accused Damagum of “doctoring” the caretaker committee list in Rivers and 10 other states.

Meanwhile, the governors have advised the national working committee (NWC) of the PDP to revisit the “contentious” caretaker committee list in Rivers.

In a statement, Debo Ologunagba, PDP spokesperson, said the governors resolved that a “political solution should be applied to resolve all the issues related thereto”.

“Consequently, the PDP Governors’ Forum directed that the National Working Committee of the PDP revisit the issue of the Rivers State Caretaker Committee List,” the statement reads.

The PDP is scheduled to hold its NEC meeting on Thursday — after a year and six months.